ΤΙ 


729 $B 13 243 
Mi23 


οἰ ρας ὃ 


2 


The citation of a few examples like blackbird-brig, donkey- 
engine, alligator-wrench, caterpillar-traction-engine, grass- 
hopper-connecting-rod will show the flexibility of the Eng- 
lish language in the transfer of animal names to mechanical 
devices and contrivances. Its freedom in other fields is 
quite as pronounced.® 

It is interesting to try to ascertain the causes for such 
freedom and scope in the transferred uses of animal names. 
Primitive man must have been curious about all phenomena 
of nature. Probably nothing in his usual round of activ- 
ities attracted and engrossed his attention so much as the 
multitudinous manifestations of animal life thronging the 
air, roaming the fields, and swimming the streams. Even 
had he not been curious, necessity, stern and inexorable, 
would soon have compelled him to form an acquaintance 
with them. 

For food and sustenance he was dependent in large meas- 
ure upon them. To capture them he had to learn their 
habits and haunts. The more intimate he became with 
their traits, the better could he provide himself with food, 
the better could he safeguard his own life. His knowledge 
of the animal world he purchased at his own expense. By 
bitter experience he learned which was the dangerous end 
of a snake or scorpion, which set of extremities of the 
panther or wild ass it was advisable to avoid. He found 
out which beasts were best for the spit, and which it was 
judicious to leave in their own domain. 

His clear vision and keen hearing were instinctively exer- 
cised in the detection of possible danger, chiefly from the 
animal world. His hand and brain were busied in fashion- 
ing weapons and devices to capture his prey or defend his 
own life. He had a real and living acquaintance with the 
manifold animals about him, he recognized their distin- 
guishing calls and cries, he knew their characteristic ac- 
tions, manners, traits, and dispositions, he located with 
ease the favorite retreat of the wild beast. 


* See Greenough and Kittredge, Words and their Ways in English Speech, 
361 ff., Words from the Names of Animals. 


3 


He found it both convenient and necessary to designate 
the various creatures he hunted, whose capture was so essen- 
tial to him. His interest in the animal world is attested by 
the large number of onomatopoetic animal names, and 
verbs representing their cries.’ 

For better protection against man and beast, he allied 
himself with other men. The clan or tribe was formed. 
He found greater need of a more extensive medium of com- 
munication. He groped about for greater freedom and 
fulness of expression. He drew upon the resources nearest 
at hand, the things with which he was by force of cir- 
cumstances most familiar. He called a man a deer because 
he was fleet, a sheep because he was timid, a fox because 
he was sly. The terms might persist and become personal 
names,® or even designate a nation.® 

In his opinion the animals were capable of communicat- 
ing and reasoning.*° He attributed to them various pow- 
ers of prognostication.*1 He endowed parts of their bodies 
with magical remedial powers.17 He went so far as to 
deify them.1* The most savage animal might be accepted 
by a tribe of men as a totem and thereafter be developed 
into a god.*# 

Not content with fables and myths about well-known 
animals,’° he fashioned from his own imagination beasts 
of fantastic shape.?® 

He forsook his hunting and nomadic life for agricultural 
pursuits. His observation of the animal world became 
keener, if possible. It took a long search to find beasts 

* Mugit bovis, ovis balat, equi hinniunt, gallina pipat. Non. 156, M. 

*Latin Asinus, Asella, Aquila, etc.; Greek Ταῦρος, Ἵππος, Κόραξ, etc.; 
English Crow, Fox, etc.; Indian Big Bear, Hawk Eye, etc. 

® Βοιωτία is,Pind. O. 6, 153. 

* Probably the conversation between Achilles and his horse Xanthus (JI. 
xix, 408 sqq.) is a reminiscence of the naiveté of primitive times. 

4 Plin. Nat. viii, 28, 42 (102-103). 

2 Plin. Nat. xxx, treats of remedies derived from various animals. 

* ἰχθύων-- ois of Σύροι θεοὺς ἐνόμιζον, Xen. Anab. i, 4, 9. Cf. also Ov. 
Fasti, ii, 471 sqq. 

A. Lang, The Secret of the Totem. 

* Cf. Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology. Cf. also, Aesop, Phaedrus, 


Hyginus, Babrius, etc. 
16 Centaur, unicorn, etc. 


μὰ 
9 
Ζ 
< 
2 
OQ 
»ς 
[15] 


β : | 
FIGURATIVE USES OF ANIMAL NAMES 
IN LATIN AND THEIR APPLICATION 

TO MILITARY DEVICES 


A STUDY IN SEMANTICS 


BY 


EUGENE STOCK MCCARTNEY, A.B. 


A THESIS 


Presented to the Faculty. of the Department of Philosophy of the 
University of Pennsylvania, in Partial Fulfilment of 
the Requirements for the Degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy 


“-- Ὁ 


oe - Ὁ 


a 
v 


Ἂς 


PRESS OF 
THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 
LANCASTER. PA 


1912 


Ἢ 
ἕνῃ, 


ὶ 


A 
ΤΣ 
τῇ 
ἊΣ 


δ 


FIGURATIVE USES OF ANIMAL NAMES 
IN LATIN AND THEIR APPLICATION 
TO MILITARY DEVICES 


A STUDY IN SEMANTICS 


BY 


EUGENE STOCK MCCARTNEY, A.B. 


A THESIS 


Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Philosophy of the 
University of Pennsylvania, in Partial Fulfilment of 
the Requirements for the Degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy 


PRESS OF 
THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 
LANCASTER. PA. 


1912 


a ce οδ΄ οἱ 
α΄ ϑῳ θ ς Se 


Ὁ" 
. 


” 2 $ 


PREFACE. 


The writer first became interested in the subject of this 
thesis by trying to parallel for class-room purposes the not 
infrequent figurative uses of animal names in Caesar and 
Xenophon. The idea of approaching it seriously from the 
view-point of semantics was due to the conflicting testi- 
monia veterum in regard to the reason for the transfer of 
the term testudo to the military device. 

The introduction, being very general in character, is 
naturally not intended to be exhaustive. 

For kindly criticism and suggestions, as well as for as- 
sistance in proof-reading, the writer takes pleasure in ex- 
pressing his thanks to Professors J. C. Rolfe and W. B. Mc- 
Daniel and Assistant Professors R. G. Kent and G. D. 
Hadzsits, of the University of Pennsylvania. 

ES Sic’. 


iil 


254943 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


M. Bréal, Essai de Sémantique, Paris, 1897. 

R. Dozy, Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes, Leyde, 
1881. 

Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore and the Occult 
Sciences, Chicago and Milwaukee, 1903. 

Genthe, Epistula de proverbiis Romanorum ad animalium 
naturam pertinentibus, Hamburg, 1881. 

J. B. Greenough and G. L. Kittredge, Words and their 
Ways in English Speech, New York, 1901. 

A. Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, London, 1872. 

Sylvio Kohler, Das Tierleben im Sprichwort der Griechen 
und Romer, Leipzig, 1881. 

A. Lang, The Secret of the Totem, London, 1905. 

A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, London, 1849. 

Ch. L. Maufras, L’Architecture de Vitruve, Paris, 1847. 

G. Murray, The Rise of the Greek. Epic, Oxford, 1907. 

C. W. C. Oman, A History of the Art of War, London, 
1898. 

A. Otto, Die Sprichworter und sprichwortlichen Redens- 
arten der Romer, Leipzig, 1890. 

G. A. E. A. Saalfeld, Tensaurus Italograecus, Wien, 1884. 

W. R. Smith, The Religion of the Semites, London, 1894. 

A. Walde, Lat. etym. Worterbuch, Heidelburg, IgIo. 

F. O. Weise, Die grieschischen Worter im Latein, Leipzig, 
1882. 

J. G. Wilkinson, The Ancient Egyptians, Boston, 1883. 

E. F. Wortmann, De comparationibus Plautinis et Teren- 
tianis ad animalia spectantibus, Marburg, 1883. 
*In addition to the books above listed, the various lexica have been 

consulted. 


The abbreviations of Latin works and their authors are those of the 
Thesaurus L. L., except that Veg. is used to refer to the military writer. 


iv 


ι᾿ 
- 
& 
“ 
a 


FIGURATIVE USES OF ANIMAL NAMES 
IN LATIN. 


Of some seven hundred names of animals? found in 
Harper’s Latin Lexicon, about one-third are used in sig- 
nifications more or less figurative. This seems a large 
proportion, but the list is far more imposing when we con-_ 
sider that metaphorically the names of animals are capable 
of more than one interpretation, attracting to themselves a 
train of kindred ideas and suggestions whereby language 
is progressively enriched, an enrichment to which there is 
hardly a limit. The list becomes even more impressive when 
we realize that from these names there are formed adjec- 
tives, verbs, and even adverbs. Furthermore, an animal 
name may become a prefix, as βου- and ἑππο- in Greek.® 

Not content with representing the vices and virtues of 
human beings by animal names, writers of comedy and 
satire further ridiculed the acts of men by the use of verbs 
which were strictly appropriate to animals alone.* Again, 
allusions to an animal may be present iz extenso without 
any mention of the animal.® 

A glance at Murray’s New English Dictionary under 
the caption dog, cat, horse, etc., will reveal in some meas- 
ure the extent of the field of this phenomenon in English. 

* The word animal is used in the Latin sense. 

* Bulimum Graeci magnam famem dicunt, adsueti magnis et amplis rebus 
praeponere fov-, a magnitudine scilicet bovis. Hinc est, quod grandes 
pueros fovraidas appellant, et mariscam ficum βούσυκον, Paul. Fest. p. 32 
Mill. Cf. Varro Rust. ii, 5,4; also the English use of horse, bull, elephant, 
to denote hugeness, strength, loudness, coarseness, as seen in horse-laugh, 
horse-nettle, horse-play, horse-ant, horse-sense, bull-frog, bull-fiddle, ele- 
phant-folio. 

*Cf.Omnes . . . sibilent, Plaut. Merc. 407; Omnis plateas perreptavi, Plaut. 
Amph. to11; Nostras aedis arietat, Plaut. Truc. 256. 

° Cf. Vergil’s figure of winds chafing like steeds at the barriers, Aen. i, 
52-63. 

I 


The citation of a few examples like blackbird-brig, donkey- 
engine, alligator-wrench, caterpillar-traction-engine, grass- 
hopper-connecting-rod will show the flexibility of the Eng- 
lish language in the transfer of animal names to mechanical 
devices and contrivances. Its freedom in other fields is 
quite as pronounced.® 

It is interesting to try to ascertain the causes for such 
freedom and scope in the transferred uses of animal names. 
Primitive man must have been curious about all phenomena 
of nature. Probably nothing in his usual round of activ- 
ities attracted and engrossed his attention so much as the 
multitudinous manifestations of animal life thronging the 
air, roaming the fields, and swimming the streams. Even 
had he not been curious, necessity, stern and inexorable, 
would soon have compelled him to form an acquaintance 
with them. 

For food and sustenance he was dependent in large meas- 
ure upon them. To capture them he had to learn their 
habits and haunts. The more intimate he became with 
their traits, the better could he provide himself with food, 
the better could he safeguard his own life. His knowledge 
of the animal world he purchased at his own expense. By 
bitter experience he learned which was the dangerous end 
of a snake or scorpion, which set of extremities of the 
panther or wild ass it was advisable to avoid. He found 
out which beasts were best for the spit, and which it was 
judicious to leave in their own domain. 

His clear vision and keen hearing were instinctively exer- 
cised in the detection of possible danger, chiefly from the 
animal world. His hand and brain were busied in fashion- 
ing weapons and devices to capture his prey or defend his 
own life. He had a real and living acquaintance with the 
manifold animals about him, he recognized their distin- 
guishing calls and cries, he knew their characteristic ac- 
tions, manners, traits, and dispositions, he located with 
ease the favorite retreat of the wild beast. 


*See Greenough and Kittredge, Words and their Ways in English Speech, 
361 ff., Words from the Names of Animals. 


> 3 


He found it both convenient and necessary to designate 
the various creatures he hunted, whose capture was so essen- 
tial to him. His interest in the animal world is attested by 
the large number of onomatopoetic animal names, and 
verbs representing their cries.’ 

For better protection against man and beast, he allied 
himself with other men. The clan or tribe was formed. 
He found greater need of a more extensive medium of com- 
munication. He groped about for greater freedom and 
fulness of expression. He drew upon the resources nearest 
at hand, the things with which he was by force of cir- 
cumstances most familiar. He called a man a deer because 
he was fleet, a sheep because he was timid, a fox because 
he was sly. The terms might persist and become personal 
names,® or even designate a nation.® 

In his opinion the animals were capable of communicat- 
ing and reasoning.*° He attributed to them various pow- 
ers of prognostication.11 He endowed parts of their bodies 
with magical remedial powers.17 He went so far as to 
deify them.'* The most savage animal might be accepted 
by a tribe of men as a totem and thereafter be developed 
into a god.'* 

Not content with fables and myths about well-known 
animals,’> he fashioned from his own imagination beasts 
of fantastic shape.*® 

He forsook his hunting and nomadic life for agricultural 
pursuits. His observation of the animal world became 
keener, if possible. It took a long search to find beasts 

* Mugit bovis, ovis balat, equi hinniunt, gallina pipat. Non. 156, M. 

® Latin Asinus, Asella, Aquila, etc.; Greek Ταῦρος, ἵππος, Κόραξ, etc.; 
English Crow, Fox, etc.; Indian Big Bear, Hawk Eye, etc. 

® Βοιωτία is,Pind. O. 6, 153. 

* Probably the conversation between Achilles and his horse Xanthus (//. 
xix, 408 sqq.) is a reminiscence of the naiveté of primitive times. 

* Plin. Nat. viii, 28, 42 (102-103). 

12 Plin. Nat. xxx, treats of remedies derived from various animals. 

18 ἰχθύων-- ods of Σύροι θεοὺς ἐνόμιζον, Xen. Anab. i, 4, 9. Cf. also Ov. 
Fasti, ii, 471 sqq. 

A. Lang, The Secret of the Totem. 

* Cf. Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology. Cf. also, Aesop, Phaedrus, 


Hyginus, Babrius, etc. 
16 Centaur, unicorn, etc. 


4 


suitable for domestication; and in making them docile and 
tractable, he had bitter trials and discouraging experiences. 

The domestic animal was his friend, or even his kin. 
The tribal blood flowed in its veins. Even the god him- 
self was at times an ox or a sheep. The slaughter of an 
ox was buphonia, or ‘ox-murder.’ The habit of slaughter- 
ing animals and eating flesh was considered a departure 
from the laws of primitive piety.’? 

His dependence upon the animal kingdom was contin- 
ually becoming more varied, if not more pronounced, not 
merely as one of his sources of food supply and for draught 
purposes, but for the necessaries, conveniences, weapons, 
and even the meager luxuries that could be produced from 
fur, bone, and hide. 

Civilization advanced, man’s horizon broadened, his mind 
unfolded, but still his life was closely connected with the 
animal kingdom. Sigua ex avibus, signa ex quadrupedi- 
bus, and auspicia pullaria played an important part in his 
existence. Birds and beasts became, as it were, eponymous 
heroes.1® Vultures flying over seven low-lying hills de- 
termined the founder of an empire,’® the cackling of geese 
saved a city,” the tripudium of chickens influenced the con- 
duct of the general,”’ the quivering of entrails and the 
action of bird and beast decided policies of state.2* Animal 
sacrifices appeased the anger of heaven. 

In countless ways human existence was linked with that 
of the animal kingdom, and thus it is not at all strange that 
animal names played so large a role in the development of 
man’s linguistic resources. 

* Lecture viii, in W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites. Cf. 
Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. §9 sq. Cf. also Varro, Rust. ii, 
5, 3: Hic (taurus) socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister, ab 
hoc antiqui manus ita abstineri voluerunt, ut capite sanxerint si quis occi- 
8 Hiding from the guidance of the hirpus ‘wolf,’ Strabo v, 4, 12; 
Picenum from that of the picus ‘woodpecker,’ id. v, 4, 2. 


fh 8 ah Oe Ae © 

Τα, Ὑ, ATs 4. 

Td. x, 40, 5-6. 

“Qui (rex Deiotarus) nihil umquam nisi auspicato gerit. Οἷς. Div. i, 
15, 26. i 


ἣ 5 


Much homely wisdom and many shrewd observations on 
life were stored up in animal proverbs.?* Profert cornua 
vultur,** ‘the vulture grows horns,’ represented the impos- 
sible; piscari in aére,* ‘to fish in air,’ signified the use- 
less; lupo agnum eripere,*® ‘to rescue the lamb from the 
wolf,’ typified the difficult. 

Dentes canini were used in eating; the door of a mistress 
was subjected to a vigorous arietatio; senectus cervina de- 
noted longevity. | 

The farmer supported his vines with cervi, the architect 
planned a testudo, the surgeon operated with a corvus, the 
veterinarian treated a ranula, the soldier shot with a scorpio, 
the infantryman rallied round an aquila, an ursa roamed 
the heavens, the gambler threw a canis, the lover called 
his sweetheart passer, the botanist searched for a dracon- 
tium, the jeweler prized a chelidonia gemma. A new spe- 
cies of fish was observed, it grunted, it became the porcus 
marinus; the unfamiliar elephant was called Luca bovis;** 
camelopardalis*® visualized prominent phases of two ani- 
mals better known. - 

Christianity made its advent. Agnus signified the Mas- 
ter, Draco, the Devil, phoenix, the resurrection, ἰχθύς, the 
new religion. 

The absence of the figurative and derived uses of ani- 
mal names would seriously impair the resources of a lan- 
guage. Each animal has some distinguishing trait, so that 
the satirist is provided with a full quiver from which to 
shoot the shafts of ridicule, the comic poet with a perennial 
fount from which to draw a supply of humor. A slight 
index of the loss incident to the exclusion from Latin of 
derived uses of animal names may be obtained by trying 

* Cf. Genthe, Epistula de proverbiis Romanorum ad animalium naturam 
pertinentibus; Sylvio Kohler, Das Tierleben im Sprichwort der Griechen 
und Romer; A. Otto, Die Sprichwérter und sprichwértlichen Redensarten 
der Romer, Das Tierreich, p. 384 sqq. 

* Claud. xviii, 352. 

* Plaut. Asin. 99. 

535 Plaut. Poen. 776. 

** Naevius ap. Varro, Ling. vii, 39. 


*_. . quod erat figura ut camelus, maculis ut panthera; Varro, Ling. v, 
100. 


6 


to imagine Plautus and Terence,”® or Horace, without them. 

The possibilities of mirth-making from this source were 
keenly appreciated by writers of the Old Comedy in Greece, 
as the citation of a few titles will show; e. g., the Birds and 
Frogs of Magnes, the Beasts of Crates, the Goats of Eu- 
polis, the Fishes of Archippus, the Snakes of Menippus, 
the Nightingales of Cantharus, the “πὲς of Plato, the 
Wasps of Aristophanes, and the like. 

That such transferred uses are popular in origin is ap- 
parent without demonstration. Accordingly we are not 
surprised to learn from Servius that the soldiers were fond 
of animal names and were in the habit of coining them for 
military weapons. Commenting on the military testudo, he 
says :°° in armorum generibus milites sumunt ab animalibus 
nomina, ut aries. That the names are non-technical is at- 
tested by Vegetius:*! testudines, musculos, arietes, vineas, 
ut appellant, ‘as the laity say.’ 

There can be no doubt that the list of such names was 
far larger than the number now extant. This can easily 
be inferred from the opposition to those that did manage 
to force their way into good standing. How many names 
of this kind perished under the censorship of the technical 
writers and purists who had the summa potestas over them, 
can only be conjectured. 

Besides this source of loss, some words have disappeared 
through the destruction of the works in which they were 
embodied. The preservation of our clearest passage on 
the ericius,®* cheval-de-frise, is due solely to antiquarian 
curiosity. 

That Tacitus** and Plutarch regarded such names as un- 

* Cf. E. F. Wortmann, De comparationibus Plautinis et Terrentianis ad 
animalia spectantibus. 

Serv. Aen. ix, 503. Quoted in Isid. Orig. xviii, 12, 6. 

*1 Veg. ii, 25. 

 Sallust ap. Nonius, 555, M. 

8 Although Tacitus describes a large number of sieges and military 
engagements, ¢estudo is the only animal name that he uses for the various 
devices. Though cuneus is frequent, caput porci never appears. Such pas- 
sages as tormentis hastas, saxa, et faces ingerere (Amn. ii, 81), must include 


the onager and scorpio. Perhaps vague expressions like tormentis ser- 
vorum patefacta sunt flagitia (Amn. iii, 23) refer to the eculeus. In Hist. 


7 


dignified, may be inferred from their infrequent or guarded 
use of them. Signs of the struggle that such words had, to 
attain recognition and standing, face us on every hand. 
While the citation of a few examples may not be convin- 
cing, the multiplication of apologetic expressions by various 
authors affords conclusive proof of the opposition to them. 

About four centuries after Xenophon used κριός and 
χελώνη in the military sense, Diodorus feels it incumbent 
upon himself to apologize for their use, τούς τε ὀνομαζομένους 
κριοὺς Kal χελώνας ,** ‘ the so-called rams and tortoises.’ 

Even Vegetius, who is fond of accounting for the trans- 
fer of some names, is very reluctant to employ others. 
Lupus he regards as distinctly vulgar and common; ferreos 
harpagonas, quos lupos vocant;*® and ferrum quem lupum 
vocant.*® In both instances he disclaims responsibility for 
its use. Murex, a term lying ready to hand, he utterly 
disdains, crossing the Adriatic for tribulus, τρίβολος. 

When murex is used by other authors," the boldness of 
the metaphor is tempered by ferreus. The adjective, how- 
ever, may be necessary, in this instance, for clearness. 

Grus ‘crane’ must have been in frequent use (see p. 33), 
but owing to the vulgarity of the term, good authors 
avoided it. Vitruvius tells us that the corvus demolitor 
was sometimes vulgarly dubbed ‘the crane.’® 

Plutarch, in describing Archimedes’s inventions at Syra- 
cuse, speaks of machines with mouths like those of cranes, 
στόμασιν εἰκασμένοις yepdvwv,?® probably not because the 
simile was on the way to a metaphor, but rather from a 
desire to be somewhat non-committal. Athenaeus speaks 
guardedly of a different crane, ἡ δὴ λεγομένη γέρανος ,*° 
iv, 30, the military grus (see grus, p. 34) is evidently meant. Even in the 
account of the siege of Jerusalem aries is not mentioned. By means of 
tormentum, machina, machinamentum, and various colorless expressions, 
Tacitus avoids the use of the convenient animal names. 

* Diod. xii, 28, 3. 

* Veg. ii, 25. 

“Td. iv, 23: 

* Val. Max. iii, 7, 2; Curt. iv, 13, 36. 

* Vitr. x, 13, 4. 


* Plut. Marcellus, 15. 
“ Math. Vett. p. 10. 


8 


‘the so-called crane.’ Athenaeus, the Deipnosophist, refers 
to the same contrivances of Archimedes as κόρακες σιδηροῖ 41 
softening the expression by an adjective. Tzetzes, how- 
ever, refuses to lower the tone of his poetic description by 
either κόραξ or yépavos.42 Polybius displays similar re- 
luctance in describing the same machines.*% 

Ammianus and Vegetius show that cumeus is technical 
for the wedge-shaped formation of battle, while caput por- 
cinum and caput porci are naive military terms: desinente 
in angustum fronte, quem habitum caput porci simplicitas 
militaris appellat;** and, Quam rem (cuneum) milites 
nominant caput porcinum.*® 

dvaypos, says Lydus, is banale: καταπέλτης δέ ἐστιν εἶδος 
ἑλεπόλεως, καλεῖται δὲ τῷ πλήθει ὄναγρος. 45 

Philon says that σκορπίοι is vulgar for the technical 
εὐθύτονα. ἅ τινες Kal σκορπίους καλοῦσιν.“ 

The κριοί of Procopius may not be merely explanatory. 
He seems to imply that it is colloquial: μηχανὰς ai κριοὶ 
καλοῦνται. 48 

Ammianus expresses his disapproval of the new-fangled 
term for the old scorpio: scorpio . . . cui etiam onagri vo- 
cabulum indidit aetas novella.*® A second time he seems to 
lament the usage of his day: Scorpionis... quem appellant 
nunc onagrum.°® Vegetius uses the generalizing third per- 
son in speaking of the cuniculus: genus oppugnationum... 
quod cuniculum vocant.®? 

Festus says that the astronomical suculae is a transfer of 
an age inelegant in speech: stellas...quas appellarunt a 
pluvia hyadas Graeci. Nostri forsitan existimantes a subus 
dici saeculo parum eloquenti, dixerunt eas suculas.5? 

Even post-classic Latin, with all its corruptions and bar- 
barisms, did not fail to recognize the humble origin and 
vulgarity of some of these terms: 

Scropha. Machinas...quas vulgo Scrophas appellant. 


“ Ath. p. 208 d. *“ Math. Vett. p. 122. 
“Tzet. Hist. ii, 35. “Procop. 8. G. i, 21. 
“ Polyb. viii, 8, 1 sq. ® Amm. xxiii, 4, 7. 

“ Amm. xvii, 13, 9. Id. xxiii, 4, 4. 

© Veg. iii, το. Veg. iv, 24. 


“ Lydus, De Mag. i, 46. Fest. p. 301 Miill. 


: 9 


Catus. Machinam quandam parvam, quae lingua vul- 
gari Catus dicitur.** 

The accumulation of these various quasi-apologetic ex- 
pressions shows how rigorous was the opposition to trans- 
ferred animal names on the part of the purists. While the 
prejudice against their use was never entirely eradicated, 
the convenience of the terms and their picturesqueness 
enabled them to escape total ostracism. 

In the following pages an effort will be made to trace 
the reasons for the transfer of animal names to military 
machines and devices, both offensive and defensive.** 
These animal terms appealed so strongly®® to the Romans, 
especially the later technical writers, that they deemed it 
worth while to stop to explain the transfer, in some in- 
stances even hazarding a guess as to the reason for it. 

Such a penchant did the Roman have for etymologizing, 
that at times we find three or four reasons adduced, a few 
of them not without a grain of humor. Our present task 
will be to sift their testimony, in an endeavor to discover 
the distinguishing shape, trait, habit, or characteristic that 
caused the transfer. The change from the literal to the 
figurative is seldom due to a resemblance in more than one 
particular. 

Apropos of this Bréal says: I] n’est pas douteux que le 
langage désigne les choses d’une facon incomplete et inex- 
acte.—Mais si je prends un étre réel, un objet existant dans 
la nature, il sera impossible au langage de faire entrer dans 
le mot toutes les notions que cet étre ou cet objet éveille 
dans l’esprit. Force est au langage de choisir. Entre 
toutes les notions, le langage en choisit une seule: il crée 
ainsi un nom qui ne tarde pas a devenir un signe. 

Consequently, in order to effect a transfer from one 

δ Quoted by Du Cange, 5. vv. 

“Cf. in Eng. basilisk, cat, crows’ feet, culverin, dogs of war, ram, 
torpedo, etc. ἢ : ᾿ 

The appeal of such figures is shown by the grim ‘ joke of Black Agnes 
of Dunbar, when she had smashed the penthouse and saw its occupants 
scampering away from beneath: “ Behold, the English sow has farrowed.”’ 


Oman, A History of the Art of War, p. 133. 
* Essai de Sémantique, pp. 191, 192. 


ΙΟ 


object to another, it is essential for at least one property to 
be the common possession of each. For instance, a metal 
is unstable, Mercury is ever on the wing. The similarity, 
as seen in the continual motion of both, causes an easy 
transfer of the god’s name to the metal. 

The points of contact between the animals and the mili- 
tary instruments to which the animal names are applied 
will be found for the most part in two things: first, in the 
shape, generally of a part of the body, as the horn, mandi- 
bles, jaws, shell; secondly, in actions, as kicking, biting, 
burrowing.*? 


ARIES, Gx. κριός Ram; transf., A BATTERING 
INSTRUMENT. 


As military machines, like all mechanisms, must go 
through a long process of evolution, it is evident without 
demonstration that the principle of the battering instru- 
ment was recognized and employed before the term κριός 
(aries) was applied to it.5® The question before us, then, 
is to decide whether the device lived a rather anonymous 
sort of existence under the general term μηχανή until one 
end was finally shaped to resemble a ram’s head; or whether 
the similarity in the method of attack inspired the use of 
the term κριός, this in turn, combined perhaps with the use 
of κεφαλή for the end of the beam, suggesting the fashion- 
ing of the ram’s head. 

An explanation of the transfer in meaning of aries would 
seem like ‘carrying coals to Newcastle,’ were it not for the 
fact that late Roman writers specifically attribute the fig- 
urative use to the shape of the end of the beam. 

In one passage Ammianus implies this: cum iam... aries 

In the following pages some citations descriptive of animal life will 
be made, in order to give a Greek or Roman background for the change, 
or to show how similar were the words applied to the animals and the 
machines. Some such passages will be of a date later than the transfer, 
though even these may reflect the views of authors far earlier, especially 
in the case of the Natural History of Pliny and the Lexicon of Suidas. 

ὅδ Thuc. ii, 76, 4, speaks of a battering device under the title μβολέή. 


Apparently the first use of the term κριός for the instrument is in Xen. 
Cyr. Vii, 4,1. 


II 


...adventaret, prominentem eius ferream frontem, quae re 
vera formam effingit arietis.*® 

Later on, the same author expresses himself in very pos- 
itive terms: abies ...arietis efficiens prominulam speciem, 
quae forma huic machinamento vocabulum indidit. 

In Vitruvius is found the statement that the ram was in- 
vented by the Carthaginians at the siege of Gades. Vi- 
truvius is indebted to Athenaeus,®°? who in turn has fol- 
lowed an older military writer. On their authority he 
states that the Carthaginians wished to raze a fortress 
which they had captured. Having no suitable implements, 
they improvised a ram from a piece of timber, and by 
means of this makeshift device, they managed to demolish 
the walls: 

Primum ad oppugnationes aries sic inventus memoratur 
esse. Carthaginienses ad Gades oppugnandas castra posu- 
erunt; cum autem castellum ante cepissent, id demoliri sunt 
conati. Posteaquam non habuerunt ad demolitionem fer- 
ramenta, sumpserunt tignum idque manibus sustinentes, 
capiteque eius summum murum continenter pulsantes, sum- 
mos lapidum ordines deiciebant, et ita gradatim ex ordine 
totam communitionem dissipaverunt.® 

As the siege referred to is the one conducted by Hamilcar 
immediately after the First Punic War, this cannot be the 
first application of the battering-principle, or the first use 
of the term aries. Hence it is unwarranted to claim that 
this impromptu device, constructed too quickly to permit of 
fashioning a head, secured its name from the resemblance 
to the butting of the ram. 

Plutarch tells®* of some machines that Pericles intro- 
duced at the siege of Samos in 440 B. C. Diodorus, a con- 
temporary of Caesar and Augustus, describes them as ‘ so- 
called rams and tortoises, τούς τε ὀνομαζομένους κριοὺς Kai 
χελώνας 6 The phraseology means that Diodorus is re- 
casting, somewhat reluctantly, in terms current in his own 

π᾿ Amm. xx, II, 15. ἜΝ χ, τ τὶ 


δ Ατητη. xxiii, 4, 8. ®Plut. Pericles 27. 
*t Math. Vett. p. 3. * Diod. xii, 28, 3. 


12 


day, accounts of machines that received definite names sub- 
sequent to the time of their introduction. 

No mention is made in Greek literature of the formal 
application of the battering principle before Thucydides’s 
description of the battle of Plataea. Here, however, the 
device masqueraded under the title ἐμβολή. It was entirely 
of wood, for it split and was rendered useless on striking the 
wall: ἡ δὲ (μηχανὴ) ῥύμῃ ἐμπίπτουσα ἀπεκαύλιζε τὸ προέχον 
τῆς ἐμβολῆδ. Mera δὲ τοῦτο οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι ὡς αἴ τε μηχαναὶ 
οὐδὲν ὠφέλουν. . . .5ὅ 

The first use of the term κριός in a military sense is a 
casual reference in Xenophon® with regard to Cyrus’s con- 
struction of rams and other machines. Hesychius in his 
Lexicon defines the term as used by Xenophon, explaining 
it by ῥόπαλον πολιορκητικόν, which is clearly a blunt-shaped 
piece of timber, a club of Hercules on a large scale. No 
mention is made of any likeness to a ram’s head. 

Since his readers were familiar with the ram-headed 
beam, Hesychius, as an antiquarian, takes occasion to ex- 
plain the unusual, namely the meaning of κριός before its 
end had been ornamented with the head. In a brief ex- 
planation of this character, Hesychius would not have re- 
frained from using the concise κριοκέφαλος, or κριοειδής, 
had the facts justified it. With regard to χελώνη, which 
maintained its general character throughout, he is content 
with μηχάνημα. 

From the first of two explanations of Suidas we can 
gather up the threads of the development, filling in the 
details: 

κριός. TO μηχάνημα τὸ πολιορκητικόν. καλεῖται δὲ οὕτως ὅτι 
προσπίπτει τε ῥύμῃ καὶ πάλιν ἐπανέρχεται, καὶ τοῦτο συνεχῶς 
ὥσπερ μαχόμενον ποιεῖ. ἔστι δὲ κεραία μεγάλη κριοειδής, καὶ 
αὐτῆς τὸ προέχον τῆς ἐμβολῆς σεσιδήρωται ἐπὶ πολύ, ὥστε 
μήτε ἀποκαυλίζεσθαι, μήτε ἐμπίπρασθαι. 

Here we have the cause of the transfer. The swing of 
the machine was like the onrush of the animal and its re- 


® Thuc. ii, 76, 4 sq. 
* Xen. Cyr. vii, 4, I. 


13 


peated attacks. The similarity was too obvious to escape 
the notice of men whose boyhood had been spent in grazing 
districts. In their everyday economy, the butting with the 
formidable brow had been very much in evidence. In the 
excitement of the siege a soldier, struck by the likeness, 
called the device κριός and its name was fixed forever. 

To prevent the device from being set on fire or shattered, 
as in the case mentioned by Thucydides, it was encased at 
the ἐμβολή with iron. This, to increase its effectiveness, 
was sharpened. The name κριός, assisted by the term 
κεφαλή already applied to the end of the beam, evidently 
suggested the fashioning of the ram’s head. 

In his alternative explanation, Suidas, following Jo- 
sephus,® states that it was the extension that was shaped 
to resemble the head of the animal, and that this gave rise 
to the name: κριός. δοκὸς ὑπερμεγέθης ἱστῷ νηὸς παραπλησία. 
ἐστόμωται δὲ παχεῖ σιδήρῳ κατ᾽ ἄκρον ἐς κριοῦ προτομήν, ἀφ᾽ 
οὗ καὶ καλεῖται τετυπωμένος. 

This derivation is impossible, since the κριός of Xeno- 
phon’s times was blunt, not pointed, nor-carefully chipped. 

In Latin literature, there are found three conflicting 
attempts to account for the transfer. Hegesippus (for in 
such guise does Josephus masquerade in the Latin trans- 
lation) attributes the change, as did Ammianus, to the 
shape of the end of the beam, in spite of the fact that in 
his description there is but a single horn and that at the end: 
Deiectus eo Vespasianus rursus ad expugnandam urbem 
accenditur, omnem exercitum congregat, machinis murum 
quatit, pulsat ariete. Nomen hoc species dedit eo quod 
validae ac nodosae arboris caput vestitur eoque ut frons 
aries praetexitur, quae obductis laminis turgescit et pro- 
minet e medio eius quasi cornus procedit ferri solidioris.®* 

Varro too was under the impression that the transfer was 
due to similarity in shape, as the context shows (see quo- 
tation p. 39). 

Vegetius has given us a choice of alternatives, ascribing 

* Joseph. B. J. iii, 7, το. 


Heges. iii, 11. Cf. Joseph. 8. J. iii, 7, 19. Isid. in Orig. xviii, 11, 1, 
is indebted to these passages. 


14 


the transfer to the resemblance between the hard head of 
the animal and the stout end of the beam; or, to the similar- 
ity between the butting and the swing of the machine, the 
ram stepping back to butt with increased power, just as the 
beam is drawn back to acquire momentum and force; ap- 
pellatur aries, vel quod habet durissimam frontem, qua 
subruit muros, vel quod more arietum retrocedit, ut cum 
impetu vehementius feriat.®® 

The first derivation can be disregarded, since the end of 
the original κριός was comparatively soft, being of wood, 
as Hesychius’s definition of Xenophon’s Κριός implies. 
Durissimam evidently refers to the iron protection of later 
times; cf. ferream frontem p. ΤΙ. 

The second alternative of Vegetius is, of course, the 
only tenable reason for the transfer. The late Greek writer 
Procopius,’® supports this view, speaking with the fullest 
assurance: ἡ δὲ (δοκὸς) συχνὰ ἐμβαλλομένη κατασεῖσαί τε ὅπη 
προσπίπτοι καὶ διελεῖν ῥᾷστα οἵα τέ ἐστι, καὶ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὴν 
ἐπωνυμίαν ταύτην ἡ μηχανὴ ἔχει, ἐπεί, τῆς δοκοῦ ταύτης ἡ 
ἐμβολὴ προὔχουσα πλήσσειν ὅπου παρατύχοι, καθάπερ τῶν 
προβάτων τὰ ἄρρενα, εἴωθε. The beam by continued batter- 
ing knocks down and razes with ease whatever it en- 
counters, such is its efficiency, and from this character- 
istic the machine gets its derived name, since the project- 
ing end has the habit of working havoc with obstructions, 
in the manner of the male sheep. 

Echoes of the real origin of the transfer can be detected 
in the reluctance of some authors to justify the derived use 
of aries by the projecting point. Vitruvius in 10, 15, avoids 
cornu by rostrum. UHegesippus in describing ‘that famous 
ram of Vespasian,’ apologizes for cornu by quasi: e medio 
eius (arietis) quasi cornu procedit ferri solidioris.™ 

That the heads were at times made separately is shown 
by Josephus. He tells how when the head of a ram was 
broken off by a stone, a defender ran out and picked it up: 
οὗτος (’EXedfapos) ὑπερμεγέθη πέτραν ἀράμενος ἀφίησιν ἀπὸ 

© Veg. iv, 14. 


τὸ Procop. 8. G. i, 21. 
τ Heges. B. J. iii, 11. 


15 


τοῦ τείχους ἐπὶ τὴν ἑλέπολιν μετὰ τοσαύτης Bias ὥστ᾽ ἀπορράξαι 
τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ μηχανήματος, ἣν δὴ καὶ καταπηδήσας ἐκ μέσων 
αἴρεται τῶν πολεμίων, καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς ἀδείας ἐπὶ τὸ τεῖχος 
ἀνέφερε. 

It is the later life-like heads, with ornamental horns at 
the side, as seen in the sculptures on the column of Trajan, 
that caused the confusion among the Romans in regard to 
the transfer of meaning. 

On a priori grounds one would naturally infer that it 
was the butting that gave rise to the figurative use of aries. 
In the animal there are two aspects, and only two, that 
stand out conspicuously, the peculiar spiral horn, and an 
innate fondness for removing obstructions, animate or inan- 
imate, with his head. The contour of the horn has enriched 
us with the κριός of architecture and ichthyology.7* A con- 
voluted horn, like that of the ram, is however absolutely 
useless for battering. Had the horn been the basis of com- 
parison, δος would have been far more appropriate as the 
name of the machine. 

A store of proverbs and allusions, emphasizing the butting 
propensity of the ram, shows how easy must have been the 
transition to aries ‘the buttress’ and aries, ‘the battering 
device.’ 

Plautus makes excellent use of this characteristic of the 
ram: Arietes truces nos erimus, iam in vos incursabimus,** 
“We shall turn into fierce rams and shall soon be rushing 
upon you.’ 

Suidas informs us that κριὸς τροφεῖα ἀπέτισε, ‘the ram 
makes requital for his keep,’ is a proverb for ingratitude: 
παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν ἀχαρίστων. καὶ yap Tous κριοὺς ἐκτραφέντας 
φασὶ κυρίττειν τοὺς θρεψαμένους, ὅ ἐστι πλήττειν. 

κριοὺς ἐκγεννᾶν τέκνα, ‘to beget children that turn on you 
like rams,’ has the same trait in mind. 

κριοῦ διακονία, ‘the tender mercies of the ram’ is, as Hesy- 
chius shows with clever repartee, a classical analogue to the 
serpent’s tooth of the Bible, to denote a filial ingrate. For 

2 Joseph. 8. J. iii, 7, 21. 


® Aries is not used for the prow of a ship. 
* Plaut. Bacch. 1148. 


16 


the astragals,*® or figs, fed by its keeper, the ram returns 
astragals far different, i. e., a vigorous impact. The con- 
versation between the ram and its master may be repre- 
sented as follows: ‘I will make you a present in pulse if 
things turn out well.’ And the ram rebutted, ‘ I’ll present 
you with my strongest impulse.’ 

κριοῦ διακονία. ὅταν προστάσσωμεν παιδία διακονῆσαι, λέγομεν. 
δώσω σοι εἰ τύχοι ἀστραγάλους, ἢ ἰσχάδας. καὶ ὁ κριὸς οὖν εἶπε, 
τὸν κρείττονα καὶ τοῦ ἀστραγάλου σοι δώσω. 

Arietilli in Petronius’® aptly describes the ‘ rambunc- 
tious.’ 

It is a very striking and interesting coincidence that the 
Semitic peoples used their words for ram, kar among the 
Hebrews, and kabs among the Arabians, to designate the 
mechanical principle. The early Semitic rams were not 
equipped with ram-like heads. The monuments show ends 
like those of spears, or truncated cones made slightly 
concave.‘? 

The parallel does not end here, for the ram followed the 
same course of development among the Semitic as among 
the Graeco-Italic peoples. ‘The besieged, if unable to 
displace the battering ram sought to destroy it by fire, and 
threw lighted torches, or fire-brands, upon it.”7® This 
necessitated an iron protection for the end. 

In the days of the Christians, we hear of enormous rams’ 
heads supplied with their full quota of horns. Dans le 
récit du siége de Saint-Jean d’Acre par les Chrétiens, tel 
que nous le donne l’historien Isfahani, on trouve de longs 
détails sur un bélier (kabS), que les assailants avaient con- 
struit pour battre les murs de la place, et qui devait son nom 
a une énorme téte surmonté de deux cornes.7® 

The independent application among both Semites and 

® Astragal, one of the vertebrae, especially of the neck; a leguminous 
by sy eve 39. 

τ See plates in Nineveh and its Remains, A. H. Layard, vol. ii, pp. 368, 
369. Egyptian monuments also show spear-like ends on their rams. See 
plate in vol. 1, p. 242, of S. Birch’s revision of The Ancient Egyptians, by 
J. 6. Wilkinson. 


Layard, id. p. 371. 
™R. Dozy, Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes, 5. v. 


2 17 


Greeks of the term ram to an instrument, no part of which 
was originally like the animal, points conclusively to the 
butting as the true reason for the transfer. 

In English, the term, ram, aside from its military and 
naval applications, is used to designate several devices for 
battering, crushing, butting, or driving by impact. Among 
them may be mentioned the following as found in The 
Century Dictionary: 

1. The weight or monkey of a pile-driving machine. 

2. The piston in the large cylinder of a hydraulic press. 

3. A hooped spar used in ship-building for removing 
timbers by a jolting blow on the end. 

4. In metal working, a steam-hammer used in forming 
a bloom. 

5. An hydraulic lifting-machine. 

In no case is there a use of the term ram that is derived 
from the shape of the device. 


EQUUS, Horse; trausf., A BATTERING INSTRUMENT(?). 


The statement of Pliny®® that the horse as a battering 
instrument was invented at Troy, equum (qui nunc aries 
appellatur) in muralibus machinis, Epeum ad Troiam (in- 
venisse dicunt), is merely tradition, going back ultimately 
to the story of the Wooden Horse in the Odyssey : 


} ἵππου κόσμον ἄεισον 
δουρατέου, τὸν ’Ezrevos ἐποίησεν σὺν "AOnvy.™ 


The idea of the aries is due to a critical spirit such as 
Pausanias later manifested in describing the so-called 
Wooden Horse at Athens. Any person of common sense, 
as he implies, would know that the Trojans were not such 
fools as to do what the story ascribes to them, and that in 
reality Epeus’s invention was a wall-breaking device: ἵππος 
δὲ ὁ καλούμενος δούρειος, ἀνάκειται χαλκοῦς. καὶ ὅτι μὲν τὸ 
ποίημα τὸ ’Ezrevod μηχάνημα ἣν ἐς διάλυσιν τοῦ τείχους, οἶδεν 
ὅστις μὴ πᾶσαν ἐπιφέρει τοῖς Φρυξὶν εὐήθειαν: λέγεται δὲ ἔς τε 
ἐκεῖνον τὸν ἵππον ὡς τῶν “Ελλήνων ἔνδον ἔχοι τοὺς ἀρίστους, .. .™ 

Ὁ Plin. Nat. vii, 56, 57, (202). Cf. also Varro L. L. vii, 38. 


* Od. viii, 492-493. 
ἜΣ Paus. i, 23, 10. 


18 


Propertius had long before expressed himself in almost 
the same vein as Pausanias: 

Nam quis equo pulsas abiegno nosceret arces, . ... 58 

We may conclude then that the story of a military horse 
owes its existence only to the long association of the breach 
in the walls and the admission of the steed, as if the latter 
had forced an entrance. 

Professor Murray suggests that “the stratagem of 
the Wooden Horse may represent only a brilliant after- 
thought of what ought to have been done,” or, if real, “ may 
refer to a siege tower of the Assyrian type.’’** 

Consideration of Pliny’s statement may be dismissed with 
the criticism in Daremberg et Saglio: On ne trouve, ni dans 
Homéere, ni autre part, rien qui justifie cette étrange inter- 
prétation de la légende.*® 


CAPREOLIT, Wixp Goats; transf., THE GABLE BEAMS OF 
THE TESTUDO AND MUSCULUS, ALSO THE BRACES 
IN THE CATAPULT AND SCORPION. 


Caesar speaks of the beams of the musculus joined by the 
gently sloping capreolt: Has (trabes) inter se capreolis 
molli fastigio coniungunt.*® 

An instance of the use of the term in connection with 
the testudo is found in Vitruvius: Supra trabes (testudinis) 
conlocentur capreoli cardinibus alius in alium conclusi.** 

Columella mentions the capreoli as a two-pronged 
weeding instrument: capreolis, quod genus bicornis ferra- 
menti est, terra commoveatur.*® Although in this case the 
figure is that of inverted horns, it seems clear that the 
metaphor in the structural capreol: is not from the horns 
of a single goat, but from the interlocked horns of two 

* Prop. iii, 1, 25. 

*G. Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 35. 

ἢ Daremberg et Saglio, 5. v. aries. The writer of the article on oppug- 
natio prefers Pausanias’s rationalistic view. 


* Caes. Civ. ii, το, 3. 


“ Vitr. x, 14, 2. In x, 10, 4, Vitruvius speaks of the capreoli in the 
catapult. 


ὅδ Colum. xi, 3, 46. 


> 19 


animals. A hint of this might possibly be drawn from 
Vitruvius’s capreolorum compactiones.*® 

Isidore’s words seem to point conclusively to this idea, 
for he says that rafters are called luctantes owing to their 
supporting each other in the fashion of contestants: Luc- 
tantes dicuntur, quod erecti invicem se teneant more luc- 
tantium.®® This obviates the necessity of making the figure 
that of inverted horns, since luctantium is not restricted to 
human beings. Animals akin to the capreoli are given to 
fighting with horns interlocked: 

Inter se adversis luctantur cornibus haedi.*? 

In capreoli, then, the figure seems to be drawn from the 
position of the horns of two struggling animals. 


TESTUDO, Gx. χελώνη, A TorTOISE; transf., 
A SHED-LIKE PROTECTION USED BY STORM- 
ING PARTIES IN SIEGE OPERATIONS. 


Three reasons are assigned or implied for the transfer 
of the term. 

I. Resemblances between the appearances and disappear- 
ances of the end of the ram beneath the testudo, and the 
sticking out and withdrawing of the head of the animal. 

2. Similarity in the manner of deflecting objects. 

3. Likeness in shape. 

Vegetius has adduced a reason, colored with a little un- 
conscious humor, for the transfer of the animal name t#es- 
tudo to the military device. With the testudo arietaria 
(see p. 24) in mind, he compares the constant sticking out 
and withdrawing of the head of the animal to the extension 
and withdrawal of the ram-headed beam within its shelter: 
Testudo a similitudine verae testudinis vocabulum sumpsit, 
quia, sicut illa modo reducit modo proserit caput, ita ma- 
chinamentum interdum reducit trabem, interdum exerit, ut 
fortius caedat.°? 

This reason for the transfer appealed so strongly to 
Vegetius that he went astray in his natural history in rep- 


itr. TE, 3- * Verg. Georg. ii, 526. 
*Isid. Orig. xix, το, 6. Veg. iv, 14. 


20 


resenting the tortoise as repeatedly sticking forth his head. 
As later quotations will show, the tortoise keeps its head 
within its shell in times of danger. 

Vegetius’s derivation is impossible because it implies that 
the military ¢testudo was invented to shelter the ram and the 
men working it. The first use of the term χελώνη for the 
device is in Xenophon’s χελώνη Evrivy,®® where it is merely 
a covering for a trench. 

The very relation of the adjective to the noun in χελῶναι 
xptopdpor,®* tortoise-carrying rams, shows that χελώνη was 
a general term for the military device, and that the use of 
χελώνη, both name and machine, in connection with κριός 
was later than both uses of χελώνη alone. In other words, 
the χελώνη had already been named before the introduction 
into it of the κριός, whose appearances and disappearances 
recalled to Vegetius the actions of a tortoise in extending 
and drawing back its head under its shell. 

There remain to be considered as a basis of the transfer 
two other causes, which at first glance appear to be indis- 
solubly linked. Was it the similarity in shape, or in the 
manner of deflecting objects, that led to the adoption of the 
name? The Greek and Roman authors are almost unani- 
mous in supporting the latter view. 

In the first use of χελώνη in Greek, Xenophon states 
that ‘a wooden tortoise’ was placed upon a trench to keep 
it from being filled with brush and stones: ὡς δ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ 
τείχους ἐκθέοντες πολλάκις ἐνέβαλον εἰς TO ὄρυγμα καὶ ξύλα Kal 
λίθους ποιησάμενος αὖ χελώνην ξυλίνην ἐπέστησεν ἐπὶ τῇ 
φρεατίᾳ 5 

Vitruvius says that the testudo was devised to afford 
protection to the men manipulating the ram: uti tutiores 
essent qui in ea machinatione ad pulsandum murum essent 
collocati.°® 

* Xen. Hell. iii, 1, 7. 

“The adjective κριοφόροι (arietariae), serves merely to differentiate this 
class of χελῶναι (testudines) from others that appeared as advances were 
made in testudo construction: e. g. διορυκτρίδες (fossiciae); γεῤῥοχελῶναι 
(craticiae) ; xworplies (aggesticiae). Math. Vett. pp. 14, 99. 


* Xen. Heil. iii, 1, 7. 
waggle oa te tae 


21 


In Athenaeus there appears the same idea. He advises 
the placing of wooden tortoises in front of the combatants in 
order to minimize their danger: πρὸς δὲ τῶν κινδυνευόντων 
στρατιωτῶν προσφερέσθησαν γεῤῥοχελῶναι ὡς πλησίαι, ἵνα 
εὐχερῶς ἐντεῦθεν ἐκπηδῶντες κινδυνεύσωσιν 51 

In all of these passages, the idea of protection stands 
forth very prominently. This same aspect is just as pro- 
nounced in descriptions of the animal. 

Livy remarks that the tortoise, when entirely enclosed 
within its shell, is safe from all danger: testudinem, ubi 
collecta in suum tegumen est, tutam ad omnes ictus video 
esse; ubi exserit partis aliquas, quodcumque nudavit, ob- 
noxium atque infirmum habere.*® 

Phaedrus has two lines to the same effect: 


Quae (testudo) cum abdidisset cornea corpus domo 
Nec ullo pacto laedi posset condita . . .” 


Aristophanes gives a vivid picture of the strength of the 
tortoise-shell and the protection afforded by it: 


ἰὼ χελῶναι μακάριαι Tod δέρματος, 

καὶ τρισμακάριαι τοῦ ᾽πὶ ταῖς πλευραῖς τέγους. 
ὡς εὖ κατηρέψασθε καὶ νουβυστικῶς 

κεράμῳ τὸ νῶτον ὥστε τὰς πληγὰς στέγειν 199 


“You turtles, thank your stars for your shell, 
Yes, thank them thrice for the roof on your pelt. 
How shrewdly you’ve covered your back and how well 
With tiles that save you from many a welt!’ 


In the last six quotations, we see the same idea empha- 
sized—the ability both of the animal and of the contrivance 
to secure protection from blows and missiles. 

It is obvious that the tortoise shell is protective because 
of its shape—in other words the relation of the last two 
possibilities is that of cause and effect. The transition from 
one idea to the other is gradual and unconscious. 

An illustration of the process by which the two ideas were 


τὴ Math. Vett. p. 98. ἢ Phaedr. ii, 6, 5-6. 
* Liv. xxxvi, 32. Ar. Vesp. 1292 sq. 


22 


confused can be obtained from the descriptions of the tes- 
tudo of shields, which was distinctively and exclusively a 
Roman military device. Ammianus, after picturing the 
three rows of shields of different level, likens the formation. 
to a vaulted structure. The result of this shape is, that 
stones and other missiles are deflected as showers of rain 
are by a roof. The word testudo is not here mentioned, 
but the thing that appealed to the writer as most important 
was the shape: Densetis cohaerentes supra capita scutis, 
primi transtris instabant armati, alii post hos semet curvan- 
tes humilius, tertiis gradatim inclinatis summisse, ita ut 
novissimi suffraginibus insidentes formam aedificii forni- 
cati monstrarent. Quod machinae genus contra murales 
pugnas ideo figuratur hac specie, ut missilium ictus atque 
saxorum per decursus cadentium labiles, instar imbrium 
evanescant.1°1 

Livy,’°? after an account of the ¢estudo made of shields, 
compares the sloping sides to the roofs of buildings, and 
then goes on to state the result: fastigatam, sicut tecta aedi- 
ficiorum sunt, testudinem faciebant...ita nec ipsos tela ex 
muro missa subeuntes laeserunt, et testudini iniecta imbris 
in modum lubrico fastigio innoxia ad imum labebantur. 

The last two citations, while by no means. conclusive in 
themselves, are very significant when we recall that all 
the other transferred meanings of testudo, except in prov- 
erbs, are due to a similarity in shape. Among these are the 
architectural testudo,'°* and akin to it, the chelonium (see 
Ρ. 50) used in the catapult. 

Servius'®* is quite explicit as to the reason for the term 
testudo when applied to the shields, attributing it to the 
general curving surface, not likening the individual shields 
to the segments of a carapace: Testudo est scutorum co- 
nexio, curvata in testudinis modum. 

Apollodorus speaks with equal assurance in regard to the 

νι Amm. xxvi, 8, 9. 

™ Liv. xxxxiv, 9. This passage is perhaps one of the sources of the 
previous citation. 


°° Cf. testudinatum. 
4 Serv. Aen. ix, 503. Quoted in Isid. Orig. xviii, 12, 6. 


23 


χελῶναι ἐλαφραί ‘light tortoises,’ which, he says, were con- 
structed with the express purpose (va) of having their 
shape like that of the tortoise: yéyvovtas δὲ ἀνισοὔψεῖϊῖς οἱ 
κάμακες παρ᾽ ἕνα ἵνα τὸ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν σχῆμα ἢ yedo@vn,'°5 

Varro likewise assigns the figurative use to.a likeness in 
external appearance, as the connection indicates (see quo- 
tation p. 39). 

We may conclude, then, that originally a device was 
needed to ward off weapons. The most effective contriv- 
ance happened to be convex, the shape of the tortoise. 
From this resemblance came the transferred use of the 
term testudo.'°° 

According to Isidore, the term ¢estudo is likewise applied 
to an individual shield: Dicitur autem et testudo scutum. 
Nam in modum testudinis fit clypeus.1°* 

The name ¢estudo is itself due to the resemblance be- 
tween the testae of the vaulted roof to the segments of the 
curving shell: Testudo dictus, eo quod tegmine testae sit 
adopertus in camerae modum.?°° 

Fancy is given free rein in Martial’s testudo!® for the 
hedgehog’s ball of spines and in Ovid’s use of the term" 
for an ornamental head-dress. 

In post-classical Latin, cancer, ‘crab,’ and cattus, ‘cat,’ 
partly displaced the term testudo: 

Expugnavit Rex hanc civitatem per duo vasa (instru- 
menta) concava, quae faciebant artifices sapientes. Unum 
vas Cattus vocabatur, aliud Cancer. Erant haec vasa longa, 
quadrata, ex omni parte laterum clausa: versus terram nul- 
lum munimen habebant, sed versus caelum de tabulis forti- 
bus ac spissis tectum, machinarum lapides minime metuebat, 
etc. 

1.5 Math. Vett. p. 15. 

“In vol. 1, p. 244, of his revision of J. G. Wilkinson’s The Ancient 
Egyptians, S. Birch has expressed the opinion that the tryfanon or pike of 
the testudo arietaria of the Greeks and Romans, and the covering or vinea 
which protected the men while they worked the battering-ram, were most 
probably borrowed originally by the Greeks from Egypt. 

- ™Tsid. Orig. xviii, 12, 6. 
105 Isid. Orig. xii, 6, 56. 


1 Mart. xiii, 86, 1. 
™ Ov. Ars iii, 147. 


24 


Infra: 

Fuit Cancer instrumentum magnum forte, pariter et pon- 
derosum. In eo erat trabs magna, pariter longa, in una 
parte grossa, in altera parva. In grossiori parte, sive in 
capite, fuit ferro forti circumdata, et in fronte ipsius Can- 
cri fortissime colligata. Trabs haec super quaedam instru- 
menta jacuit, quod faciliter moveretur. Hic Cancer cum 
ad murum pervenisset, et octo in circulos, qui in trabe erant, 
funes immisissent, ex paucis ictibus pro magna parte cadere 
coegerunt. 

Mox: 

Ex parte terrae fuerunt obsessi per Cattum atque Can- 
crum; quia solus Cancer, quingentos homines occupabat.'** 

Another instance of the testudo type of machine is found 
in sus, ‘the sow’: Unum fuit machinamentum, quod nostri 
Suem, veteres Vineam vocant, quod... protegit in se sub- 
sidentes, qui quasi more suis, ad murorum suffodienda pene- 
trant fundamenta. 

The locusta was a somewhat similar device: Locusta am- 
bulatoria: intus homines ducentes eam, possunt se haerere 
muro aut prope murum castelli et defendere se a saxis 
hostium ac missilibus.**% 

The English has a rather striking figure prompted by 
the shape of the tortoise. 70. turn turtle, is common in nau- 
tical slang and its application has been extended to other 
fields. The figure is due, of course, to the shape of the 
hull of the capsized vessel. 

Turtle is also used of the detachable segment of a rotary 
printing-machine. 


TESTUDO ARIETARIA. 


Vitruvius, after describing the invention of the simple 
aries whose weight was supported by men, tells in detail 
how it was made more efficient. It was supported on a 
cross-beam; then it was rendered movable by a platform 

*7 Quoted by Du Cange, 5. v. Cancer. 


™ Quoted by Du Cange, s. v. Sus. 
*8 Quoted by Du Cange, 5. v. Locusta. 


25 


equipped with wheels; finally protection was afforded the 
soldiers working it by the addition of a covering of hides. 
With such a preface, he states that the complex machine, 
testudo arietaria, was so named by its inventor because of 
its sluggish movements: quod tardos conatus habuerat, tes- 
tudinem arietariam appellare coepit.'* 

The grammatical relation shows that the combination of 
the words, testudo arietaria, is due to the development of 
the simple testudo, not the simple aries. When the func- 
tions of an instrument are enhanced, logic demands that the 
change be shown by an adjective. A lifting machine, when 
it has a fixed base, is called a crane. When the whole ma- 
chine moves it is called a traveling-crane. When the 
corvus, primarily for piercing or holding, has its scope of 
operations increased so that it is adapted to tearing down 
walls, the new function is shown by an epithet, demolitor. 

Vitruvius clearly thought that the testudo arietaria was 
developed from the simple aries. If this were so, and if 
the slow movements figured in the transfer, then we should 
expect an adjective testudineus, ‘of tortoise-like sluggish- 
ness,’ to show the new function of the aries, i. 6. the machine 
would be aries testudineus, ‘the ram of tortoise-like slug- 
gishness.’ If the instrument aries is the basis of the com- 
plex machine, then the term aries is logically the basis of 
the expression denoting the contrivance. 

As it is, the grammatical order of the two words, testudo 
arietaria, χελώνη Kpiopdpos, proves that the function of the 
testudo is increased. The Greek adjective κριοφόρος, where 
κριο- is the equivalent of an objective genitive, is sufficient 
evidence that testudo arietaria means, not ‘the ram’s tor- 
toise, but ‘the ram-carrying tortoise,’ i. e. the tortoise 
modified to carry a ram. 

Vitruvius is apparently indebted to Athenaeus,1!> who 
accounts for the transfer διὰ τὴν βραδυτῆτα (tarditatis 
causa). 

When the ¢estudo was placed on wheels (subrotata) and 


mr Witt. τῶν ὃ 
“5 Math. Vett. p. 3. 


26 


equipped with a more ponderous framework to support the 
increased strain of an aries in action, its progress was nec- 
essarily impeded by the additional weight, especially where 
there were irregularities in the ground. Hence its move- 
ments resembled the sluggishness of the creature that Pacu- 
vius calls tardigrada.\® Clearly the testudo sheltering the 
ram is an adaptation of a previous testudo, and the re- 
semblance in the slow progress is an incidental and neces- 
sary concomitant. In other words its slowness is a result 
of the modified conditions, not a cause of the name. 


MUSCULUS, A LITTLE Mouse; transf., A SMALL 
SHED-LIKE PROTECTION USED IN SIEGE OPERATIONS. 


A very romantic flavor has been imparted by Vegetius 
to his description of the Musculi, the small shed-like pro- 
tections for besiegers. They form the advance guard in 
storming cities, he informs us, and prepare the way for 
the larger siege machines. They receive their name from 
the sea musculus, which, though comparatively small, still 
furnishes aid and guidance to the whale: Musculos dicunt 
minores machinas, quibus protecti bellatores sudatum au- 
ferunt civitatis; fossatum etiam adportatis lapidibus lignis 
ac terra non solum conplent, sed etiam solidant, ut turres 
ambulatoriae sine impedimento iungantur ad murum. Vo- 
cantur autem a marinis beluis musculi; nam quem ad 
modum illi, cum minores sint, tamen balaenis auxilium ad- 
minisculumque iugiter exhibent, ita istae machinae breviores 
[vel] deputatae turribus magnis adventui illarum parant 
viam itineraque praemuniunt. 

The story that the sea-mouse was a sort of cicerone to 
the whale was too good for Pliny to omit. He cites the 
musculus as being a fish well known for its friendship for 
the whale. When the latter’s vision is obstructed by his 
fat heavy eyebrows, the musculus swims ahead of his great- 
ness, the whale, showing the treacherous shoals and per- 
forming the function of eyes: amicitiae exempla sunt... ba- 
laena et musculus, quando praegravi superciliorum pondere 


18 Pac, ap. Cic. Div. ii, 64, 133. 
117 Veg. iv, 16. 


᾿ς 27 


obrutis eius oculis, infestantia magnitudinem vada praena- 
tans demonstrat, oculorumque vice fungitur.1** 

Although it is not essential for a belief to be well-founded 
in order to gain sufficient currency to effect a transfer, the 
metaphor of Vegetius appears too involved to appeal to 
the popular consciousness. It is hardly probable that the 
soldiers strained their imagination to such an extent when 
easy and obvious comparisons presented themselves at every 
turn. : 

In order to gain currency, a transfer must appeal to the 
rank and file of the soldiery. This means that the story 
would have to be generally known to the troops, and, in 
addition, that the preliminary manoeuvring of the mus- 
culi must be a regular part of siege tactics, a thing which 
is not emphasized by military writers. 

Isidore’s fanciful derivation from murusculus (musculus 
cuniculo similis fit, quo murus perfoditur, ex quo appellatur, 
quasi murusculus) ,\'° is another indication of the density of 
the mist that beclouded the real etymology. 

Oman states'*® that the bore and its shelter are sometimes 
referred to in the chronicles under the one term “ musculus, 
“the mouse,’ because its object was to gnaw a round hole in 
the lower courses of the rampart.” 

In classic times, the musculus was always clearly differen- 
tiated from the terebra, and its employment to protect the 
operation of the latter machine was but one of several ap- 
plications. 

If the figure were that of gnawing, we should expect the 
term musculus to be applied first to the bore or pick, and 
then by synecdoche to the mantlets, whereas the converse 
appears to have been the case, e. g. cupiunt murum succidere 
musclis.!*4 

™ Plin. Wat. ix, 62, 88, (186). Cf. also id. xi, 37, 62, (165), Musculus 
marinus, qui balaenam antecedit. The English has a close analogy in the 
pilot-fish, “so named because it is often seen in company with a shark, 
swimming near a ship, on account of which sailors imagine that it acts as 
a pilot to the shark.” Webster. 

™ Isid. Orig. xviii, 11, 4. 

™ Oman, A History of the Art of War, p. 133. 


™ Abbo, De Bellis Parisiacae Urbis, i, 99 in Scriptores Rerum Germans- 
carum. 


28 


Again, had the idea of gnawing even remotely occurred 
to the Romans, it is difficult to understand how Isidore, who 
ransacked Latin literature for derivations, should be driven 
to his hypothesis, especially when he uses perfodio, a term 
suggestive of gnawing. 

The appositeness of the figure of gnawing seems to be 
merely incidental, and that with a special use of the mus- 
culus at a time when the bore was one of the two great 
weapons of siegecraft. 

When one considers the epithets and verbs descriptive 
of the advance of machines of the mantlet character, it seems 
hardly probable that all should escape a sobriquet recalling 
the method of locomotion. Several machines of the mus- 
culus type are said to creep. 

Lucan pictures vividly the advance of the vinea; mediis 
subrepit vinea muris.1?? 

In the case of the large towers, this verb is very appro- 
priate because of the motion of the wheels: 


Hae (turres) nullo fixerunt robore terram, 
Sed per iter longum causa repsere latenti.12° 


In the cat, the creeping is again prominent. 


Huc faciunt reptare Catum, tectique sub illo 
Suffodiunt murum.?*4 


Significant is the epithet ‘creeping’ in locusta ambula-~ 
torta (see p. 24), likewise a machine to protect storming 


parties. 

The alternative of creeping affords an easy transition for 
the figure, and while not so striking as the reason adduced 
by Vegetius, is still highly picturesque.12° As the adjective 


™ Lucan, ii, 506. 

158. Lucan, iii, 457-458. 

™* Quoted by Du Cange, 5. v. Catus. 

™ In A Dream of Fair Women, Tennyson adds a touch of life to his 
picture by the use of the epithet creeping: 


Heroes tall 
Dislodging pinnacle and parapet 
Upon the tortoise creeping to the wall. 


In English, the figure of creeping or crawling appears in caterpillar- 
traction-engine. Worm-fence and snake-fence suggest the sinuous appear- 
ance of their animal prototypes when in motion. 


: 29 


‘walking’ is very apropos for the erect advance of the tall 
perpendicular towers, turres ambulatoriae, so the term mus- 
cult is quite suited for describing the low horizontal ma- 
chines, which move slowly and with their bodies almost 
upon the ground. 

The fact that musculus, a muscle, is a figure drawn from 
the creeping motion, that of the biceps, supports this view. 


TEREBRA A Woop-worm (?): A BorE FoR PENE- 
TRATING WALLS DURING SIEGES. 


An instance of popular etymology, suggesting that of 
sparrow-grass in English, is seen in Isidore’s derivation for 
terebra: Terebra vocata a verme ligni, qui vocatur terebra, 
quem Graeci τερεδόνα (sic) vocant. Hinc dicta terebra, quod 
ut vermis terendo forat, quasi terefora, vel quasi transforans. 


CORVUS, Gk. κόραξ Crow: transf., 1. A GRAPNEL; 
2. A BATTERING INSTRUMENT. 


Corvus is a picturesque term for a pointed instrument. 
Even the clutch of the hand-bow, χειρουργικὸν τόξον, prob- 
ably gets its name, according to the scholiast, from its like- 
ness to the beak of the bird: addimus fieri posse corvum 
ideo appellatum quod corvi caput cum (sic) suo rostro 
imitetur.1?7 | 

If a machine resembled the beak of a bird, it was very 
natural for corvus to be selected as its name, since the 
strength and power of that bird are subjects of frequent 
comment. Aristotle applies to the crow the terms, ἐσχυρὸν 
καὶ σκληρόν͵138 ‘strong and destructive.’ 

Egyptian crows, κόρακες Αὐγύπτιοι, says Aelian, on failing 
to get what they want, perch in flocks upon ships and sever 
the cables and rigging by pecking: ἀτυχήσαντες δὲ ὧν 
ἤτουν, συμπέτονται, Kal ἑαυτοῦς καθίσαντες ἐπὶ τὸ κέρας τῆς 
νεὼς τῶν σχοίνων ἐσθίουσί τε καὶ διατέμνουσι τὰ ἅμματα. 139 

The crows of Libya are famed for their lifting ability, 


136 Isid. Orig. xix, 19, 14. 8 Arist. De Part. Anim. 662 Ὁ. 
7% Math. Vett. p. 333. 9 Ael. N. A. ii, 48. 


320 


being adept at picking up stones with both beak and claw: 
ψήφους κομίζουσι καὶ τῷ στόματι Kal τοῖς ὄνυξι, καὶ ἐμβάλλουσιν 
ἐς τὸν κέραμον 1380 

The crow also employs its mandibles with great skill, be- 
ing able to gouge out the eyes, even of the larger animals, 
such as the ass and the bull: ὁμόσε τοῖς ζώοις χωρεῖ, ov 
μέντοι τοῖς βραχυτάτοις, ἀλλ᾽ ὄνῳ τε καὶ ταύρῳ. κάθηται τε 
γὰρ κατὰ τῶν τενόντων καὶ κόπτει αὐτούς, πολλῶν δὲ καὶ ὀφθαλ- 
μοὺς ἐξέκοψεν ὁ κόραξ. 131 

Livy’s story 152 of Corvinus and the crow likewise attests 
the strength of the crow’s beak. 

These stories, irrespective of their truth, show the popular 
belief in the efficacy of the crow’s beak, and in addition to 
this, the annual depredations of the crow at seed-time kept 
the destructiveness of its mandibles constantly in mind. 

To Duilius at the battle of Mylae in 260 B. C. is ascribed 
the invention of the corvus as an instrument of warfare.13% 
Polybius'** says that the idea was suggested by a seaman 
and that thereafter (μετὰ ταῦτα) it was called κόραξ. In 
apparent conflict with this account is Curtius’s statement that 
a κόραξ was employed by the Tyrians in the defence of 
their island city against the hosts of Alexander the Great 
in 332 B. C. 

The grapnels referred to before this time are the χεῖρες 
σιδηραῖ of Thucydides.12* After the fall of Tyre, χεῖρες 
σιδηραῖ (manus ferreae) and κόρακες (corvi) are found in 
constant association, as in Diodorus!®" and in Curtius.138 

The difference lies in the fact that the grapnels had sev- 
eral prongs for grasping, whereas the κόρακες, like tongs, 

™ Ael. N. A. ii, 48. 

χα. AE 

™ Liv. vii, 26. 

*8 Maufras, in his edition of Vitr. bk. x, n. 102, mentions the discrep- 
ancies with regard to the invention of the corvus, but ventures no explana- 
tion. Polybe et Frontin disent que le consul C. Duillius, qui commandait 
Varmée navale des Romains, fut ’inventeur de cette machine, quoique Q. 
Curce en attribue l’invention aux Tyriens, lorsque leur ville fut assiégée. 

134 Polyb. i, 22, 3. 

* Curt. iv, 2, 12. 

* Thuc. iv, 25, 4; vii, 62, 3. 


121 Diod. xvii, 44, 4. 
*§ Curt. iv, 3, 26. 


31 


had only two, and they were manipulated like the mandibles 
of a crow; hence the figure. 

The Tyrian corvus was fashioned as a defensive engine, 
corvique et alia tuendis urbibus excogitata praeparaban- 
tur,'°® for grasping and seizing. 

The corvus of Duilius, unlike that of the Tyrians, was 
distinctly offensive. Its end was tipped with iron sharp- 
ened to a point, and shaped like a baker’s pestle, as Poly- 
bius states: ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ πέρατος αὐτοῦ (στύλου) προσήρμοστο 
σιδηροῦν οἷον ὕπερον ἀπωξυσμένον. 149 

The comparison with the pestle shows that the instru- 
ment is likened to a crow with closed mandibles, to facilitate 
piercing. It was intended, as Polybius goes on to say, to 
hold the ships together by forcing its way through the deck, 
not by grappling: ὅτε δὲ ταῖς σανίσι τῶν καταστρωμάτων 
ἐμπαγέντες οἱ κόρακες ὁμοῦ συνδήσαιεν τὰς ναῦς 1.41 

As the corvus of Duilius resembled that of the Tyrians 
in name only and not in purpose or construction, Polybius 
is correct in his statement with regard to Duilius’s invention 
of a crow. i 

Vitruvius speaks of a corvus demolitor,‘** which evidently 
is identical with an engine that Vegetius describes, although 
the latter does not use the term corvus. The two descrip- 
tions are quite similar. Vegetius comments as follows: 
trabem, quae adunco praefigitur ferro et falx vocatur ab eo, 
quod incurva est, ut de muro extrahat lapides.'** 

Polybius’s words are somewhat analogous: ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ 
πέρατος αὐτοῦ (στύλου) προσήρμοστο σιδηροῦν οἷον brrepov,1*4 

Both devices had a long beam equipped with iron at 
the end. The difference is that Vegetius’s machine was 
hooked, for the purpose of tearing stones from walls, evi- 
dently from the top, whence the epithet demolitor. 

A fuller quotation of Vegetius shows that he is thinking 
of an instrument quite analogous to the aries in construc- 
tion, and not very dissimilar to it in its application: Haec 
(testudo) intrinsecus accipit trabem, quae aut adunco prae- 

129 Curt. iv, 2, 12. 2 Vitr. x, 13, 4. 


ἘΦ Polyb. i, 22, 7. 8 Veg. iv, 14. 
mM 1d. i,. 22, 9: ™ Polyb. i, 22, 7. 


32 


figitur ferro et falx vocatur ab eo, quod incurva est, ut de 
muro extrahat lapides, aut certe caput istius vestitur ferro 
et appellatur aries.’* 

The corvus then had three distinct military uses, as is 
shown by the operations at Tyre and off Mylae and by the 
corvus demolitor, the transfer being due in each instance 
to the resemblance to the closed or open mandibles of the 
bird. 

The comparison with the beak of a bird was prompted by 
the shape of the end of the implement; the selection of the 
term corvus, however, was due to the fact that the crow is 
the most common bird with strong mandibles. 

In English, the figurative use of the word crow is com- 
mon in the mechanical world in crow-bar. Colloquially we 
have such expressions as to crow over, as the crow flies, 
and the like. 

In alligator-wrench there is present the figure of fixed 
gaping jaws and in monkey-wrench, that of a movable jaw. 


CORAX, Gx. κόραξ A Crow: transf., A KIND OF 
BATTERING DEVICE. 


Vitruvius speaks of the corax very disparagingly, stating 
that it is utterly ineffective: De corace nihil (Diades) puta- 
vit scribendum, quod animadverteret eam machinam nullam 
habere virtutem.1*¢ 

Vitruvius is quoting an earlier military writer, Diades, 
probably through Athenaeus, for the latter refers to the 
κόραξ inthe same vein: τὸν δὲ κόρακα, οὔ φημι εἷναι ἄξιον 
KaTacKeuns 147 

The corax suggests the corvus demolitor. It seems pos- 
sible that the direct transliteration from the Greek in corax 
and the epithet in corvus demolitor serve the same purpose, 
that of differentiating the battering-crow from the types em- 
ployed at Tyre and off Mylae. 

“© Veg. iv, 14. 


wn Nate, ey Sy 6: 
7 Math. Vett. p. 5. 


33 


GRUS, GK. yépavos, CRANE; transf., 1. A BATTERING 
INSTRUMENT; 2. A LIFTING DEVICE. 


Vitruvius in speaking of the corvus demolitor, a sort of 
battering instrument (see p. 31), says that it is sometimes 
dubbed grus: corvum demolitorem quem nonnulli gruem 
appellant.*4® 

As several of these animal names reflect their Greek 
origin, this use of grus may have been influenced by the 
wooden pounding device, called γέρανος, which the Greek 
miller employed in crushing his grain. Hesychius com- 
ments on γέρανος in this sense: ὄργανον ξύλινον, ἐν @ κόπτουσιν 
οἱ ἀλφιτοποιοὶ τὰ ἄλφιτα. 

It will be recalled that Polybius compares the corvus of 
Duilius to a baker’s pestle.**° 

Although Vitruvius’s casual remark, in which the term 
grus is applied to a battering instrument, is the only direct 
reference in Classic Latin to a military grus, we can postu- 
late the existence of another grus, a lifting device somewhat 
similar to the Tyrian corvus. As in the previous instance, 
grus was the vulgar word, while corvus was in good stand 
ing. Though the term corvus at first reigned supreme, 
grus at an early period challenged its position, and after 
centuries of conflict finally supplanted its predecessor. 

The lifting corvus, which is first mentioned in connection 
with the siege of Tyre, was manipulated by a series of 
pulleys and tackle. In describing the siege of Syracuse, 
Plutarch mentions the γέρανος, although ἴῃ ἃ rather re- 
served manner: τὰς δὲ (ναῦς) χερσὶ σιδηραῖς ἢ στόμασιν εἰκασ- 
μένοις γεράνων, ἀνασπῶσαι (κεραῖαι) πρῴραθεν ὀρθὰς ἐπὶ πρύμ- 
ναν ἐβάπτιζον. 150 

Athenaeus in describing the same machines calls them 
iron-crows, showing that neither term was used to the ex- 
clusion of the other: «épax& τε σιδηροῖ κύκλῳ τῆς νεὼς οἱ δι᾽ 
ὀργάνων ἀφιέμενοι τὰ τῶν ἐναντίων ἐκράτουν σκάφη .15: 

148 τΊ. ᾿ 

1 Polyb. i237 


150 Plut. Marcellus, xv. 
*! Ath. p. 208 d. 


34 


Polybius refers to these contrivances of Archimedes with- 
out committing himself to the use of either term.*>? 

Tacitus, in his Histories, alludes without doubt to the 
grus adapted to military purposes, but, with his usual aver- 
sion for undignified animal names, he eschews the use of 
the term. Under the general term machinamentum, he 
pictures in vivid colors the manner of working the grus, 
telling how it was lowered and how it carried off members 
of the storming party, placing them within the walls: Prae- 
cipuum pavorem intulit suspensum et nutans machinamen- 
tum, quo repente demisso praeter suorum ora singuli plu- 
resve hostium sublime rapti verso pondere intra castra effun- 
debantur.*** 

Such a use of the grus in siege operations was long before 
foreshadowed by the stage γέρανος, which removed actors 
or corpses from the stage: ἡ δὲ γέρανος μηχάνημά ἐστιν ἐκ 
μετεώρου καταφερόμενον ἐφ᾽ ἁρπαγῇ σώματος ᾧ κέχρηται Has 
ἁρπάζουσα τὸ σῶμα τὸ Μέμνονος 1593 

That the term grus was applied to such a contrivance is 
indicated by the various forms of the word grus which 
appear in the Romance languages to denote the machine. 

Fr. Grue. Grande machine avec quoi on éléve de grosses 
pierres pour les batiments. 

Sp. Grua. Pescante, instrumento compuesto de poleas, 
cuerdas y ganchos, para subir y levantar cosas de peso. 

It. Gru. Macchina per la cui azione si sollevano i pesi. 

Lengua Castellana, Grua. Se usa principalmente en los 
muelles, para la carga y descarga de buques. 

Port. Grou. Guindaste, pole. 

Other nations which derived their civilization from the 
Romans simply translate the old grus: cf. English crane; 
German Krahn. 

We may conclude from this evidence that just as the 
colloquial manduco and caballus existed side by side with 
the literary edo and equus, and finally displaced them, so 
the vulgar grus struggled with corvus for recognition and 

* Polyb. viii, 6, (8), 1 sq. 


*8 Tac. Hist. iv, 30. 
154 Poll. iv, 130. 


V2 385 


ultimately achieved a signal victory over its more aristo- 
cratic synonym before the lines between the Romance lan- 
guages were clearly drawn. 

The rivalry between grus and corvus may perhaps be 
roughly paralled in English by alligator-wrench and croc- 
odile-wrench. The latter expression, perhaps a provincial- 
ism, is sometimes used colloquially, though recognized by 
no standard dictionary. Alligator-shears and crocodile- 
shears are however regarded as identical by The Century 
Dictionary and Cyclopedia. 

The transfer of the term γέρανος is, of course, due to a 
fancied resemblance between the long neck of the bird and 
the projecting arm of the machine. The Greek writers 
make frequent comment on the neck of the crane, some- 
times in complimentary terms, sometimes disparagingly. 

Homer expresses his admiration in a graceful hexameter: 
χηνῶν ἢ γεράνων ἢ κύκνων δουλιχοδείρων 15° 

Aristotle in more prosaic fashion speaks of the long necks, 
τοὺς τραχήλους μακρούς155 of the cranes, and in other pas- 
sages shows that it was proverbial for an epicure to wish for 
a gullet like a crane’s: ηὔξατό τις ὀψοφάγος ὧν τὸν φάρυγγα 
αὑτῷ μακρότερον γεράνου γενέσθαι 151 


SUCULA, A LitTLeE Pic; transf., A WINDLASS, USED IN 
THE SCORPION AND CATAPULT,*® AS WELL 
AS IN OTHER DEVICES. 


PORCULUS, A LITTLE Pic; transf., A CLUTCHING 
DEVICE USED WITH THE SUCULA. 


Festus attributes the transfer in the meaning of sucula to 
the figure of a breeding sow, surrounded by her litter: 
Sucula est machinae genus teretis materiae, et foratae, ac 
crassae, quam, ut uber scrofae, porculi circumstant sic, ver- 
santesque ductario fune volvunt.'®® 

5 7]. ii, 460. 

** Arist. De Acoust. 800 b. 

* Arist. Nic. Eth. 1118 a. Cf. Athen. iv, 131 e: γέρανος τουτουὶ τοῦ 
χάσκοντος διατειναμένη διὰ τοῦ πρωκτοῦ καὶ τῶν πλευρῶν διακόψειεν τὸ μέτωπον. 


Ἐς x, 12. %s 
* Fest. p. 301 Mill. 


26 


Walde in the first edition of his Latin etymology! 
distinguishes between sucula, the diminutive of sus, and 
sucula, the windlass. If that distinction be warranted, the 
figurative use of sucula in Festus is a case of popular ety- 
mology, much like that of sparrow-grass or cow-cumber in 
English. The mistake would recall the popular miscon- 
ception of suculae, ‘Hyades,’ which must have caused Pliny 
much amusement. His comment is as follows: Nostri a 
similitudine cognominis Graeci, propter sues inpositum ar- 
bitrantes, inperitia appellavere suculas.1®* 

In his second edition, however, Walde regards sucula, 
a little pig, and sucula, a windlass, as identical in origin. 
When the term sucula, a windlass, was derived, whether 
popularly or deliberately, from sucula, a little pig, it was 
an easy transition to liken the clutch in the device to a 
suckling pig. It is quite evident that Cato had such a 
figure in mind when he gave directions for the construction 
of a wine-press: Porculum in media sucula facito.1®? 

The metaphor in porculus is then a logical extension of 
the figure in sucula. 

In English, the term dog is used to denote the device for 
clutching and holding a cable in a windlass. We may 
compare also the Greek use of ὄνος, ὀνίσκος, a windlass, 
winch or handle of a windlass, the figure being developed 
from the idea of the ass as a beast of burden. ~ 


CAPUT PORCI (vel PORCINUM): A Hoc’s Heap; 
transf., A \WEDGE-SHAPED ORDER OF BATTLE. 


Hog’s head was a popular expression in the sermo cas- 
trensis to denote the V or wedge-shaped formation of battle. 

Ammianus writes as follows with regard to the military 
porcus: desinente in angustum fronte, quem habitum caput 
porci simplicitas militaris appellat.1®* 

Vegetius comments with greater detail: Cuneus dicitur 
multitudo peditum, quae iuncta cum acie primo angustior, 

100 Walde, Lat. etym. Wérterbuch, s. v. 

11 Plin. Nat. xviii, 26, 66, (247). 


102 Cato, Agr. xix, 2. 
48 Amm. xvii, 13, 9. 


37 


deinde latior procedit et adversariorum ordines rumpit, 
quia a pluribus in unum locum tela mittuntur. Quam rem 
milites nominant caput porcinum.*** 

The transfer, as is shown by the synonym cuneus, is due 
to the shape, although we may well suppose that the epithet 
owed its favor to the pictures it recalled in the minds of 
the soldiers, who, as country lads, had seen the destructive 
snout plough its way through the earth in search of roots. 


ERICIUS, A HeEnce-Hoc: transf., A DEVICE EQUIPPED 
WITH SPINOSE SHAFTS TO REPEL OR 
RETARD ASSAILANTS. 


The ericius was a defensive contrivance equipped with 
long echinated shafts. While it is not described in detail 
by any Latin author, its structure may easily be imagined 
with the aid of a passage in which Sallust makes it the 
basis of acomparison. He tells how javelins radiated from 
an axle in the manner of a military ericius: Saxaque in- 
gentia et orbes axe iuncti per pronum incitabantur, axi- 
busque eminebant in modum ericii militaris veruta binum 
pedum.?® 

It is of course obvious that the likeness is between the 
spines of the animal and the spinose shafts of the device. 
This transfer must have appealed to the soldiers, since the 
animal, as Pliny shows, is ready, when curled up like a 
ball, to ward off its foes: ubi (erinacei) sensere venantem, 
contracto et ore pedibusque ac parte omni inferiore, qua 
raram et innocuam habent lanuginem, convolvuntur in for- 
mam pilae, ne quid comprehendi possit praeter aculeos.1*® 

Some time later, Cassiodorus draws a lesson from the 
hedge-hog, which, thanks to an all-wise nature, is always 
under arms, being protected by a countless number of the 
sharpest spines: Herinacius... est, quem vocamus hericium, 
animal omnino timidum, natura providente semper arma- 
tum: cuius cutem in vicem setarum sudes acutissimae den- 
sissimaeque communiunt.'®? 

Analogous to the military hedge-hogs, but with a meta- 


14 Veg. iii, 19. 196 Plin. Nat. viii, 37, 56, (133). 
*® Sall. apud Non. 555, M. το In Psalm. 103, 18. 


38 


phor less suggestive of their animal prototypes, are the 
Frisian horses, cheveaux-de-frise, of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, which were pieces of timber set with long iron spikes 
and employed in defensive operations, especially against 
cavalry charges. 


CERVI ET CERVOLI, Derr: transf., ANTLER-LIKE © 
BRANCHES SET UP IN THE GROUND. 


The cervi were sharpened branches of trees set up to ob- 
struct or impede the advance of a foe. Caesar used them 
effectively at the siege of Alesia: Huic (vallo) loricam pin- 
nasque adiecit, grandibus cervis eminentibus ad commissu- 
ras pluteorum atque aggeris, qui ascensum hostium tar- 
darent.1®§ 

The cervi were also used to block the progress of an 
enemy in the open: 


Quaque patet campus planis ingressibus hostis, 


Cervorum ambustis imitantur cornua ramis,...1®® 


The cervoli, cheveaux-de-frise on a small scale, are rec- 
ommended by Hyginus for use in fortifications: 

Cervoli trunci ramosi. Ad hos decurritur, si soli natura 
nimia teneritate cespes frangitur, neque lapide mobili nisi 
confragosum vallum extrui potest, nec fossa fieri, ut non 
ripae decidant.*”° 

The metaphor in this instance is unusually easy, since 
the terms ramus and ramosus were regularly used for the 
antlers of the deer. Pliny does not hesitate to call them 
rami, ‘branches’; (Natura) lusit animalium armis, sparsit 
haec in ramos, ut cervorum.?™ 

Phaedrus uses the figure very felicitously as he pictures 
a stag admiring his branching antlers reflected in a spring: 


Ad fontem cervus, cum bibisset, restitit, 
Et in liquore vidit effigiem suam. 
Ibi dum ramosa mirans laudat cornua...1% 


108 Caes. Gall. vii, 72, 4. 

169 Sil. x, 412-3. 

" Hyg. Mun. Castr. 51. Cf. also Frontin. Strat. i, 5, 2. 
™ Plin. Nat. xi, 37, 45, (123). Cf. id. viii, 22, 50, (116). 
112 Phaedr. i, 12, 3-5. 


39 


Vergil uses the adjective arboreus as well as ramosus in 
describing the branch-like appearance of the horns.*7* 

Since ramus and ramosus are applied so freely to the 
antlers of the stag, it is very natural for cervi to be em- 
ployed for the antler-like branches. 

Varro’s explanation that the term is due to the resem- 
blance to the horns is, of course, obvious: Cervi ab simili- 
tudine cornuum cervi: item reliqua fere ab similitudine ut 
vineae, testudo, aries.'*# 


ONAGER, Gk. évaypos, A WILD Ass; transf., 
AN ENGINE FOR THROWING STONES. 


Ammianus has enlivened his account of the transfer of 
onager by a piece of striking imagery. A new style of 
speaking, says he, applied the term onager because the 
wild ass, on being pressed by hunters, kicks up stones with 
such force that they penetrate the breasts of the pursuers, 
or break bones, crushing even the skull itself: onagri voca- 
bulum indidit aetas novella ea re, quod asini feri cum vena- 
tibus agitantur, ita eminus lapides post terga calcitrando 
emittunt, ut perforent pectora sequentium aut perfractis 
ossibus capita ipsa displodant.’*® 

Judging from the tales of the effectiveness of this machine 
one may conclude that it was a worthy representative of its 
animal prototype. 

Ammianus informs us that it utterly disintegrated what- 
ever it struck: Nam muro saxeo huius modi moles (onager) 
inposita disiectat quidquid invenerit subter concussione vio- 
lenta, non pondere.'”® 
_ Vegetius too brings before us in animated terms an idea 
of its destructiveness. Stones thrown by it crush the bones 
of man and beast, and even disable the weapons of the foe. 
No fortification can withstand its blows, since it hurls mis- 
siles with lightning-like rapidity, leaving ruin in their path: 
Onager dirigit lapides...Saxis gravioribus per onagrum 

™8 Verg. Aen. τ, 190; Ecl. vii, 30. 

™ Varro Ling. v, 117. 


“© Amm. xxiii, 4, 7. 
16 Amm. xxiii, 4, 5. 


40 


destinatis, non solum equi eliduntur et homines, sed etiam 
hostium machinamenta franguntur.?77 

Ballistae et onagri, si a peritis diligentissime temperen- 
tur, universa praecedunt, a quibus nec virtus ulla nec mu- 
nimina possunt defendere bellatores. Nam more fulminis 
quicquid percusserit aut dissolvere aut inrumpere con- 
suerunt.!78 

It is clear that the basis of the transfer of meaning lies in 
the similarity between the motion of the arm of the onager 
in discharging missiles and the animal’s use of its hind 
legs. The relation of cause and effect was again obscured 
by the Romans, who emphasized the likeness in results. 

The Greek dvaypos as a ballista is late and evidently re- 
flects Latin usage. Procopius speaks of it as though it were 
rather unfamiliar: σφενδόνῃ δὲ αὗταί (ai μηχαναί) εἰσιν ἐμ- 
φερεῖς καὶ ὄναγροι ἐπικαλοῦνται. 119 

The ὄναγροι οἵ Suidas were defensive machines to seize 
assailants, the figure being due to the biting of the animal: 
ὄναγροι μηχανήματα, οἱ λεγόμενοι ἅρπαγες, οἵγε ἁρπάζειν τοὺς. 
προσιόντας ἐπιβαλλόμενοι εἶχον. 

Instead of the horse, the ancients regularly used as 
beasts of burden and for menial tasks animals of the same 
genus as the ouager, and so had ample occasion to note their 
freedom with their heels. Pliny recommends the adminis- 
tering of frequent potions of wine to check the familiarity 
of the mule in this respect: Mulae calcitratus inhibetur vini 
crebriore potu.1®° In the same chapter, he pays his respects: 
to the unusually hard hoofs of the animal: duritia eximia 
pedum. 

Its dangerous heels enabled the wild-ass to make an al- 
liance with the lion: 


Θήρης dvaypos καὶ λέων ἐκοινώνουν 
ἀλκῇ μὲν ὁ λέων, ὁ δ᾽ ὄνος ἣν ποσὶν κρείσσων. 181 


Veg, iv, 22. 

8 Td. iv, 29. 

7 Procop. B. G. i, 21, το. 

* Pliny Wat. viii, 44, 69, (174). Cf. also id. xxx, 16, 53, (149) : mulas: 
non calcitrare, cum vinum biberint. 

* Babr. 67, 1-2. 


sas 


It is quite possible that it is the hoofs of the ass and mule, 
as well as those of the horse, whose imprint we see in the 
Latin recalcitro, and the English descendant, recalcitrant. 


EQUULEUS (ECULEUS), A LitTTLEe Horse; transf., 
AN INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE. 


While the eguuleus is not properly included under the 
Machinae Bellicae, it was sometimes used in camp life as 
Curtius shows: Tot conscii, nec in eculeum quidem inpositi, 
verum fatebuntur?**? 

Prudentius refers to the eguuleus as a no-xialis stipes, evi- 
dently a piece of timber of stout body, which assisted per- 
haps by converging supports, somewhat similar to stocky 
legs, roughly resembled a horse.*** 

Isidore, however, assigns another reason for the transfer, 
attributing it to the method of inflicting torture: Equuleus 
autem dictus quod extendat.'** 

The transfer in meaning is made easy by the fact that the 
horse is an animal traditionally associated with torture. 

Among the early Achaeans, says Murray, “if a woman 
attempted to bear a child to any man but her special master, 
she was apt to be burned alive, or torn asunder by horses.’’2** 

In speaking of the mutilation of the corpse of Hector, 
the same author says: “‘ A far worse story was really handed 
down by the tradition. There are fragments of the rude 
unexpurgated saga still extant, according to which Hector 
was still alive when his enemy tied him to the chariot rail 
and proceeded to drag him to death. Sophocles, always 
archaic in such matters, explicitly follows this legend 
(Ajax, 1031). So does Euripides (Anudrom. 399). Even 
so late a writer as Vergil seems to adopt it.’’?*° 

The Vergil passage runs as follows: 

#2 Curt. vi, 10, 10. Cf. also Amm. xiv, 5, 9. 

188 Cf. Vaulting-horse, wood-horse. 

4 Tsid. Orig. v, 27, 21. 


18 Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 75. 
186 Murray, id. p. 118. 


42 


Hector 
Visus adesse mihi largosque effundere fletus, 
Raptatus bigis, ut quondam, aterque cruento 


Pulvere perque pedes traiectus lora tumentis.*** 


According to one form of the story, Dionysus had the 
limbs of Lycurgus wrenched apart by horses: κἀκεῖ κατὰ 
Διονύσου βούλησιν ὑπὸ ἵππων διαφθαρεὶς ἀπέθανε..8 This 
version may have been familiar to the Romans through the 
Lycurgus of Naevius. 

Livy, too, presents a gruesome picture, depicting the fate 
of the treacherous Alban dictator Mettius: 

Exinde duabus admotis quadrigis in currus earum dis- 
tentum inligat Mettium, deinde in diversum iter equi con- 
citati lacerum in utroque curru corpus, qua inhaeserant 
vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes ab tanta foe- 
ditate spectaculi oculos. Primum ultimumque illud sup- 
plicium apud Romanos exempli parum memoris legum hu- 
manarum fuit.®® 

Casual remarks by Seneca, eculeo longior factus, 
“made longer by a horse’; by Ammianus, intendebantur 
eculei,1®! ‘the horses were stretched’; and by Hieronymus, 
quum eculeus corpus extenderet,’® ‘when the horse 
stretched the body,’ emphasize the same idea that Isidore 
presents. 

Prudentius gives a vivid picture of the operation of the 
eculeus: 


190 


Vinctum, retortis brachiis, 
Sursum ac deorsum extendite, 
Compago donec ossuum 
Divulsa membratim crepet.!*? 


It seems safe to conclude that, although the stout body, 
assisted perhaps by its stalwart supports, suggested an 
animal, still the use of the term eguuleus was due to the tra- 
ditional association of the horse with torture. 


*7 Verg. Aen. ii, 270 sqq. Sen. Epist. 67, 4. 
188. Apollod. iii, 5. #1 Amm. xiv, 5, 9. 
180 Liv. i, 28, 10-11. 1 Hier. Epist. i, 3. 


™ Prud. Perist. ν, 109-112. 


43 


Analogous to this use of eguuleus are the following: 

It. Cavelleto: Spezie di tormento a cui si ponevano i rei 
per far loro confessare la colpa.*®* 

Fr. Chevalet: Sorte de cheval de bois a dos en aréte 
sur lequel on mettait, avec des boulets aux pieds, les soldats 
qui avaient commis certains fautes.**® 

Ger. Esel: Der hdlzerne Esel, ein Strafmittel ftir 
Soldaten.1*® | 

Eng. Steed: An English religious poet of the fourteenth 
century says of Christ, ‘on stokky stede he rode.”?*” 

Eng. Horse: A wooden frame, sometimes called a tim- 
ber mare, on which soldiers are sometimes compelled to 
ride as a punishment.’*8 


MURMILLO or MIRMILLO,’” A ΚΙΝΡ oF SEAFISH; 
transf., A GALLIC HELMET. 


The scholiast on Juvenal attributes the transfer to the 
fish represented on the helmet: Mirmillo”°® armaturae Gal- 
licae nomen, ex pisce inditum, cuius imago in galea fingitur. 

Too little credence”®! is given to the words of the scho- 
liast, since from Festus we may infer that the use of mur- 
millo for the helmet was an intermediate stage between the 
adoption of the device and the use of the term for a glad- 
iator. Murmillones replaced the term Galli to indicate the 
men who wore the murmillonic kind of armor: murmilloni- 
cum genus armaturae Gallicum est ipsique murmillones ante 
Galli appellabantur, in quorum galeis piscis_ effigies 
inerat.7°? 

In spite of the silence of the lexicographers, there seems 

** Dizionario della Lingua Italiana, Tommaseo e Bellini. 

195 Dictionnaire Général de la Langue Frangaise, Hatzfeld et Darmesteter. 

196 Deutsch-englisches Wérterbuch, Lucas. 

131 Words and their Ways in English Speech, Greenough and Kittredge, 

- 367. 

%8 The Century Dictionary. 

ob zu gr. μορμύλος, wopuivos, ‘eine Art Meerfisch. Walde Lat. etym. 
Worterbuch, 5. v. 

© Schol. ad Juv. viii, 200. Forcellini 5. v. questions this reading by 
Injept ,,ogddua.” Jahn however makes no comment upon it. 


31 Harper’s Dict. and Walde give only one meaning. 
2 Paul. Fest. p. 284 Mill. 


44 


to be no doubt that the term murmillo was actually applied 
to the armor as well as to the gladiator. 

An interesting parallel of an emblem or device giving 
rise to a sobriquet is afforded by “ culverin from L. coluber, 
‘snake,’ because the figure of a serpent was frequently en- 
graved on ordnance of this kind.” 


MUREX, A SHELL-FIsH: tranusf., CALTROP. 


Under its Greek name, tribulus, Vegetius describes the 
military murex as a defensive device with four sharp shafts 
radiating from it in such a way that, no matter how it was 
thrown, one shaft always remained upright in a threatening 
position: Tribulus est ex quattuor palis confixum propug- 
naculum, quod, quomodo abieceris, tribus radiis stat et 
erecto quarto infestum est.?°* 

The effectiveness of the contrivance is manifested in Poly- 
aenus’s account of the operations of Nicias against the Syr- 
acusans. During the night the Athenians scattered cal- 
trops over the level plain. When the enemy charged, they 
found their progress hindered since the points penetrated 
the hoofs of their horses: Νικίας, στρατοπεδευόντων ᾿Αθη- 
ναίων περὶ τὸ "Odvprrov, ἐς τὸ πρὸ τοῦ στρατοπέδου χωρίον, 
ὁμαλὲς ὃν, ἐκέλευσε νύκτωρ τριβόλους κατασπεῖραι. *Errel δὲ 
τῆς ὑστεραίας “Exgavtos ὁ Συρακουσίων ἵππαρχος προήγαγε 
τοὺς ἱππεῖς, ἦν αὐτῶν αἰσχρὰ φυγή, τῶν τριβόλων ἐμπηγνυ- 
μένων ἐν τοῖς ποσὶ τῶν ἵππων. πολλοὶ δ᾽ αὐτῶν οὐδὲ προβαίνειν 
οἷοί τε ἦσαν, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ τῶν πελταστῶν στερεὰ ὑποδήματα ἐχόν- 
των διεφθείροντο.29ὅ 

The sharp spines are so characteristic of the fish, that the 
term murex was applied to many sharp objects. It is com- 
monly used to denote jagged and dangerous rocks: Muri- 
ces petrae in litore similes muricibus vivis, acutissimae et 
navibus perniciosae.*°® 

8 Greenough and Kittredge, Words and their Ways in English Speech, 
ff ee iii, 24. The Latin term murex is used by Curt. iv, 13, 36, and by 
Val. Max. iii, 7, 2. 


7 Polyaenus i, 39, 2. 
* Isid. Orig. xvi, 3, 3. 


45 


Pliny informs us that Cato, in order to prevent the as- 
sembling of the people in the Forum, decreed that it be 
strewn with murices, probably sharp stones: mutatis mori- 
bus Catonis Censorii qui sternendum quoque forum murici- 
bus censuerat.?°* These murices may be forerunners of the 
military murices. 

With an emphasis of such ee aseher placed upon the sharp 
points, the transition is very easy to the military murex, the 
prominent feature of which is the sharp spine-like shaft. 

The murex was used also as a means of torture for pris- 
oners. The Romans, according to the traditional story, re- 
taliated for the cruelty to Regulus by confining Carthaginian 
captives in a box bristling with murices, ‘spikes: 

Tuditanus somno diu (Regulum) prohibitum atque ita 
vita privatum refert, idque ubi Romae cognitum est, nobilis- 
simos Poenorum captivos liberis Reguli a senatu deditos et 
ab his in armario muricibus praefixo destitutos eodemque 
insomnia cruciatos interisse.*°® 

In English military parlance the expression crows’ feet 
is used at times to denote the caltrop. 


ASPIS, Gx. ἀσπίς, An Asp; transf., A SHIELD. 


To Justinian we are indebted for an instance of the use in 
Latin of the word aspis, meaning shield: Prohibemus priva- 
tos fabricari et vendere arcus, sagittas; aspidas insuper sive 
scutaria.?°? 

The Thesaurus of Stephanus and the Dictionary of Lid- 
dell and Scott unite with the Auctor Etymologici Magni 
in giving precedence to the second meaning. Saalfeld in 
his Tensaurus Italograecus and the Thesaurus Ling. Lat. 
adopt the reverse order. In Greek, ἀσπίς means shield in 
nearly every instance, while in the Latin aspis the order 
of frequency is the reverse. 

The Auctor ΚΕ. M. ascribes the change to the method of 
locomotion of the animal as it advances in a whirling coil 

τ Plin. Nat. xix, 1, 6, (24). 


* Gell. vii, (vi), 4, 4. 
2 Novell. Tust. 86, 4. 


46 


and not elongated. It is a figure drawn from the weapon, 
for the serpent is accustomed to fight with its body coiled. 

ἀσπίς... ἐπὶ τοῦ ἑρπετοῦ, διὰ TO κύκλους ποιεῖν τοῦ σώματος 
καὶ μὴ ταχέως ἐκτείνειν εἰς μῆκος. ἀπὸ μεταφορᾶς τοῦ ὅπλου. 
οὕτω γὰρ συστρέψαν ἑαυτὸ πολεμεῖ καὶ μάχεται. 

Whether the transfer be from asp to shield or vice-versa, 
it seems probable that the real basis of the change is the 
one assigned. There has always existed a large mass of 
popular fiction and superstition with regard to snakes, and 
it is not too much to suppose that this belief in the alleged 
shape of the asp when making its attack was sufficiently 
widespread to effect the change in meaning. The general 
appearance of the asp would then be circular and convex, 
which is the shape of the ἀσπίς (clipeus) when the term is 
accurately used. 

To effect such a transfer it would not be necessary for 
people to see the asp perform in propria persona, since free 
rein is given to the imagination in snake lore. A harm- 
less snake of the southern part of the United States has 
ascribed to it a method of locomotion which is entirely 
foreign to it, and so gets the name Hoop Snake, “from the 
mistaken notion that it curves itself into a hoop, taking its 
tail in its mouth and rolling along with great velocity.”?!° 

Likewise ‘Southern children believe that a coachwhip- 
snake is able to roll rapidly along the ground in the form 
of a hoop, and in this manner it will pursue a defenseless 
child and whip it to death.”?4 

The scholiast on Aristophanes, though differing with the 
Auctor 5. M. in the order of the transfer, also attributes 
the figure to the shape of the asp, but when it was coiled up 
in sleep. With a greater strain upon his imagination he 
may have likened the head of the sleeping serpent to the 
umbo of the shield: 

δοκεῖ δέ μοι τὴν ἀσπίδα τὸ ὅπλον ἀπὸ τοῦ τοιούτου ὠνομάξεσ- 
θαι ζῴου, διὰ τὸ εἰς κύκλους πολλοὺς ἑλισσόμενον καθεύδειν. 
κυκλικαὶ γὰρ ἦσαν αἱ ἀσπίδες τῶν παλαιῶν."13 

*° Webster 5. v. hoop. 


Ἢ Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore and the Occult Sciences, vol. 
ii, p. 696. ΤΣ In Vesp. 18, Dibner. 


47 


While the second alternative does not account for the se- 
lection of the asp rather than some other species of the 
snake family, still it gives additional assurance that the 
metaphor arises from the similarity in shape. 


SCORPIO, Gk. σκορπίος, A ScorPION: transf., 1, AN 
INSTRUMENT PRIMARILY FOR SHOOTING ARROWS; 
2, AN ARROW; 3, A KIND OF BALLISTA.. 


In striving to account for this transfer of meaning, Ter- 
tullian has led us into a bewildering labyrinth of compari- 
sons that seems ivremeabile. He finds numerous like- 
nesses in the general complexity of both animal and ma- 
chine, in the source of the danger, in the contour of the 
frontal claws of the animal and the shape of the bow, in the 
method of attack, and in the dangerous point of the sting 
and of the arrow: 

Scorpii series illa nodorum, venenata intrinsecus venula 
subtilis, arcuato impetu insurgens, hamatile spiculum in 
summo tormenti ratione restringens; unde (i. 6. from all 
of these points) et bellicam machinam, retractu tela vege- 
tantem, de scorpio nominant.?** 

There is no suggestion of the naive in Tertullian’s ex- 
planation. It is a conscious endeavor to find points of 
resemblance. 

Heron has found the cause of the transfer in the general 
shape of the scorpion, εὐθύτονα. ἅ τινες Kai σκορπίους καλοῦσιν 
ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ TO σχῆμα ὁμοιότητος ;71* but this explanation 
is too indefinite in its character to be satisfactory. 

When we recall that the term scorpio is applied to a 
prickly sea-fish, an aculeated plant, a sharp-pointed instru- 
ment of torture, a tapering boundary stone, etc., we can 
safely conclude that Vegetius is correct in attributing the 
figure to the sting itself (and not to the stinging) : 

Scorpiones dicebant, quas nunc manuballistas vocant, 
ideo sic nuncupati, quod parvis subtilibusque spiculis in- 


3 Tert. Scorp. i, 4-7. 
74 Math. Vett. p. 122. 


48 


ferunt mortem.2!5 That is, not, ‘because they cause death,’ 
but, ‘because they use small delicate points as an instru- 
ment of death.’ 

The Greek technical name for the machine, καταπέλται 
ὀξυβελεῖς, ‘sharp-missiled catapults,’ supports the deriva- 
tion of Vegetius, since the weapon of the catapult is pri- 
marily the arrow. In fact, ὀξυβελεῖς, emphasizing the 
point, is directly in line with the tradition of the sagas 
which furnish clues for the explanation of the effectiveness 
of ancient Greek archery. ‘“‘ There is no doubt whatever 
that the primitive inhabitants of Greece poisoned their 
arrow-heads. The very word for poison, τοξικόν, means 
‘belonging to an arrow.’ And many myths tell of the in- 
curable and burning pains caused by arrows. The arrows 
of Heracles in Hesiod (Aspis, 132) ‘had on the front of 
them death and trickling drops.’ 2:6 

The prominence of the erect tail, together with the gen- 
eral shape of the body, and the belief in the deadly results 
of the sting, ensured the selection of the scorpio for the 
transfer instead of the bee, whose aculeus makes men yell: 
apis aculeum sine clamore ferre non possumus.?*? 

The metaphor in scorpio did not always proceed laxis 
habenis. Isidore is quite explicit on the subject, inform- 
ing us that the term may be applied to the arrow alone, 
whether it is discharged from the bow or from the catapult: 
Scorpio est sagitta venenata arcu vel tormentis excussa, 
quae dum ad hominem venerit, virus, qua figit, infundit; 
unde et scorpio nomen accipit.71§ 

While the transfer is assigned in this passage to the 
stinging rather than the stinger, we can again account for 
the statement through a confusion between cause and effect. 

In later times the term scorpio became synonymous with 
onager: Scorpionis quem appellant nunc onagrum...??® 

In this instance, the similarity is between the erect caudal 

* Veg. iv, 22. 

™6 Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 120. 

= Cic. Tusc. ii, 22. 


δ Isid. Orig. xviii, 8, 4. 
219 A ese 
mm. xxiii, 4, 4. 


~ 49 


appendage and the threating arm of the machine. Scorpio 
(appellatur) quoniam aculeum desuper habet erectum.??° 

Between no other animal and machine are there so many 
points of similarity, real or incidental. A description of 
one would almost fit the other: 


ANIMAL. | MACHINE. 
aculeus aculeus 
acumen acumen 
spiculum spiculum 
ictus ictus 
figere figere 
venena diffundere??! virus infundere??! 
venenum infundere 
arcuato impetu insurgens retractu tela vegetans. 
intrinsecus venula subtilis σωλήν 
tenui fistula perforati fistula... patula tenuitate 
venenata venula sagitta venenata 
eum interficere demonstratur | inferre mortem 


Chele (Gk. x77), properly the claws of a scorpion or 
crab, is transferred to the claw-shaped trigger of the 
machine. 

That the Romans had a wholesome respect for the scor- 
pion, is shown by Ovid’s vivid picture of its erect menacing 
tail: elatae metuendus acumine caudae scorpios.??? 

The belief in the deadly effect of its venom is revealed by 
the tradition that Orion, the Nimrod of Classic Mythology, 
was killed by a scorpion: Orion, cum venaretur-et in eo 
exercitatissimum se esse confideret, dixisse etiam Dianae et 
Latonae se omnia quae ex terra oriuntur, interficere valere: 
quare terram permotam, scorpionem misisse, qui eum inter- 
ficere demonstratur.??? 

That the scorpion impressed its individuality upon the 
Greeks, is attested by numerous proverbs. 

229 Amm. xxiii, 4, 7. 
* This word recalls the derivation from σκορπίζω. 


™ Ov. Fast. iv, 163. 
*3 Hyg. Astr. ii, 26. 


50 


‘To act the scorpion,’ as Hesychius tells us, denotes 
bestial anger. σκορπίωσαι: ὡς θηρίον τραχύνου, ὄργίζου. 

σκορπίον ὀκτάπουν ἐγείρεις reminds one of the English ex-. 
pression, ‘ You’re stirring up a hornets’ nest.’ 

ὑπὸ παντὶ λίθῳ, becomes proverbial for danger. Soph- 
ocles makes excellent use of the figure in the Captives. 

ἐν παντὶ yap τοι σκορπίος φρουρεῖ λίθῳ.3393 ‘Under every 
stone, I tell you, a scorpion lurks.’ 

σκορπίος ζητῶν ὅτῳ ἐγχρίμψει τὸ κέντρον, 235 recalls the Bib- 
1104] lion seeking whom he may devour. 


CHELONIUM, Gx. χελώνιον, A TorTOISE SHELL; 
transf., A PART OF THE SCORPION, APPARENTLY 
THE Hook, AXLE, AND FRAME. 


Heron has given the reason for this name, ascribing it to 
the general contour of the appliances as they rise from the 
body of the machine: ἐκάλουν τὸ μέρος τοῦ ἐπικειμένου κανόνος 
χελώνιον. ἦν ye καὶ ὑψηλότερον τοῦ ἐπικειμένου κανόνος 339 

Commenting on this passage, the scholiast confirms the 
words of Heron: Chelonium Graece χελώνιον, Quid sit 
proprie in catapulta chelonium, ex hoc loco manifeste patet, 
ratio enim vocabuli apponitur, ait enim Heron, vel potius 
innuit, ideo dictum, quod superet sua eminentia summam 
superficiem summae regulae; erat enim instar testudinei 
dorsi elatum.??" 

Figurative uses of the Greek and Latin words for back 
are rather common. Commenting on Verg. Aen. i, 110, 
Servius cites Homer’s νῶτα θαλάσσης. He adds that dorsum 
‘reef’ immediately following aras, is quite in keeping, since 
in Greek altars are called horses’ backs: Dorsum autem hoc 
loco non absurde ait, quia Graece arae ipsae ἵππου νῶτα 
dicuntur, ut Sinnius Capito tradidit, secundum Homerum. 

In English, the turtleback or whaleback, is “δῇ arched 
protection erected over the upper deck of a steamer at the 
bow, and often at the stern also, to guard against damage 


4 Soph. fr. 34 (Campbell). 6 Math. Vett. p. 124. 
* Poll. vi, 125. Id. p. 332. 


Ἢ 51 


from the breaking on board of heavy seas.” By synecdoche 
the terms are then applied to the entire vessel. 

In baseball circles the turtleback diamond has made its 
advent in recent years. 


LUPUS, Gx. λύκος, A WOLF; transf., A JAW-SHAPED 
DEVICE FOR SEIZING THE ARIES,?28 OR EVEN MEN. 


An instance of the military use of this word is found in 
a passage where Livy tells of tron wolves threatening to 
carry besiegers aloft within the walls: in alios lupi superne 
ferrei iniecti, ut in periculo essent, ne suspensi in murum ex- 
traherentur.??° 

Comparing this wolf with the one employed to recover 
articles from the bottom of a well, one might suppose the 
transfer to lie in the physical act of seizing: Lupus qui est 
canicula, ferreus harpax, quia si quid in puteum decidit, 
rapit et extrahit, unde et nomen accipit.?*° 

An indication of the real reason for the name can be ob- 
tained from the description of Vegetius, who lays stress on 
the shape of the gripping apparatus, which resembles a pair 
of shears and is equipped with teeth: Plures in modum for- 
ficis dentatum funibus inligant ferrum, quem lupum vocant, 
adprehensumque arietem aut evertunt aut ita suspendunt ut 
impetum non habet feriendi.?** 

Further confirmation of the view that it is the shape of the 
jaws, and not their action, that causes the transfer is found 
in lupus, a bit with wolf-like teeth, and in lupus, a handsaw. 
The power to grip and seize is a result of the shape. As in 
other instances, a confusion has arisen between cause and 
effect. In English a close analogy is found in the seven- 
teen uses of dog, “ἃ name given to various mechanical de- 
vices, usually having or consisting of a tooth or claw used 
for gripping or holding.’’3? 

** This recalls the proverbial antipathy between the wolf and the sheep. 
*” Liv. xxviii, 3, 7. 
530 Isid. Orig. xx, 15, 4. 


1 Veg. iv, 23. 
* Murray, New Eng. Dict. 5. v. dog. 


52 


The proverbial rapacitas of the wolf,?*? which is respon- 
sible for lupus, a voracious fish or person, facilitates the 
selection of the word wolf to denote the device which works 


with results so similar. 
In Procopius there is described a λύκος, ‘ wolf,’ which, 


though more complex than the Roman device, operated with 
wonderful precision and accuracy.”** Like onager (see p. 
40), it is an instance of Greek indebtedness to Latin for an 
animal name to designate a military machine. 

Wolves of various types were employed during the mid- 
dle ages: 

Lupus Belli appellatur a Matth. Westmonaster. ann. 
1304: Iussit rex arietem fabricari, quem Graeci Nicontam 
vocant, quasi vincentem omnia, et Lupum belli. Verum 
aries indecens et incompositus parum aut nihil profuit: 
Lupus autem belli, minus sumptuosus inclusis plus nocuit. 

Lupus, nude, in Chronico Estiensi apud Murator. tom. 15, 
col. 359: Unum maximum Lupum cum quo capiebat for- 
tilitias domini Marchionis. 

Loupus. Mandatum Ricardi 11. Regis Angl. ann. 1394: 
Necnon ad quoscumque defectus, tam in muris, portis, turel- 
lis, Loupis, pontibus, barreris et fossatis, quam in domi- 
bus.?° 


CUNICULUS, A Rassit; transf., A TUNNEL EMPLOYED 
IN SIEGE OPERATIONS. 


The transferred application of cumiculus for an under- 
ground passage was a very broad one, including even aque- 
ducts. The term was, however, used most frequently in 
its military signification. Among a warlike people this 
was very natural. As a nation, the Romans were in their 
early days more familiar with siege tactics than with 
mining operations. 

78 Ael. N. A. xi, 37, has classified the wolf, dog, lion, and panther by the 
term καρχαρόδοντα, animals with teeth dove-tailed, so to speak, and hence 
adapted for seizing. Of the first two animals, which are the more familiar 
ones, the Latin chose wolf for the figurative use, the English selected dog. 


** Procop. B. G. 21, 19 sq. 
*5 Quoted by Du Cange, 5. v. Lupus. 


53 


In spite of the statement of Varro*®® and Pliny,?** cuni- 
culus, ‘an underground passage,’ is derived from the name 
of an animal and not vice versa. 

Paulus gives the real sequence of the transfer in the 
first of his explanations, though the second is an etymolog- 
ical absurdity: Cuniculum, id est foramen sub terra occul- 
tum, aut ab animali, quod simile est lepori, appellatur, cui 
subterfossa terra latere est solitum, aut a cuneorum simili- 
tudine qui omnem materiam intrant fidentes.?*® 

Vegetius, however, displays no hesitancy in his deriva- 
tion, rightly ascribing the transfer to the animal’s habit of 
burrowing: Genus oppugnationum est subterraneum atque 
secretum, quod cuniculum vocant a leporibus, qui cavernas 
sub terris fodiunt ibique conduntur. 

While the burrowing causes the transfer, an intermediate 
step must have been the application of the term cuniculus to 
the results of the animal’s excavating propensities, i. e. to 
the burrow. 

A figure somewhat similar to that in cuniculus is found 
in talpa, the mole, or digger: Talpa. Machina ad suffo- 
diendos muros, sub qua latent, qui cuniculos conficiunt.?* 

The cunicularit of earlier days are recalled by the fal- 
parii: Habebat quippe quosdam artifices, quos Fossores vel 
Talparios vocant, qui ad modum talpae subterranea fodi- 
entes, quaslibet murorum et turrium firmitates ferramentis 
validissimis perrumpebant.**4 

The popular belief in the burrowing ability of the rabbit 
is shown by Pliny’s statement, on Varro’s authority, that the 
cuniculi undermined a town in Spain.*42, M. Varro auctor 
est a cuniculis suffosum in Hispania oppidum. 

Martial has a clever distich playing upon the two uses 
of the word cuniculus: 


Gaudet in effossis habitare cuniculus antris. 
Monstravit tacitas hostibus ille vias.?4% 


8 Varro Rust. iii, 12, 6. *° Paul. Fest. p. 50 Mill. 
351 Plin. Nat. viii, 55, 81, (218). * Veg. iv, 24. 

* Du Cange, 5. v. Talpa. 

** Quoted by Du Cange, 5. v. Jalparii. 

*® Plin. Nat. viii, 29, 43, (104). 

3:5 Mart. xiii, 60. 


΄ 


54 


TIGRIS, ΙΝ PErsIAN, AN ARROW; IN LaT., A TIGER. 


An interesting instance of the opposite phenomenon, the 
name of a weapon giving rise to the name of an animal, 
is seen in the Latin tigris. The word goes back ultimately, 
through the Greek τέγρις, to the Persian, where, as Varro 
says, it was applied to an arrow or a very swift stream: 
Tigris qui est ut leo varius, qui vivus capi adhuc non potu- 
it; vocabulum e lingua Armenia; nam ibi et sagitta et quod 
vehementissimum flumen dicitur Tigris.*** 

Pliny has a few words of the same tenor as Varro’s: a 
celeritate Tigris incipit vocari; ita appellant Medi sa- 
gittam.?* 


MULI, Mutes: MULI MARIANI: 1, DEvIcEs USED ΒΥ 
SOLDIERS OF MARIUS FOR CARRYING BAGGAGE; 2, THE 
SOLDIERS WHO CARRIED THEIR OWN BAGGAGE. 


While the expression Muli Mariani was applied to the 
soldiers of Marius, as Plutarch shows,?*® there seems to 
be no doubt that the expression signified originally a forked 
device over which the baggage dangled in a manner sug- 
gesting the legs of a horseman astride his mount. Festus. 
speaks as follows: Muli Mariani dici solent a Mario instituti, 
cuius milites in furca interposita tabella varicosius onera 
supportare assuerant.47 

From the same source we have a more definite statement 
that it was the furcillae that were called Muli Mariani: 
Aerumnulas Plautus refert furcillas, quibus religatas sar- 
cinas viatores gerebant. Quarum usum quia Gaius Marius 
rettulit, Muli Mariani postea appellabantur.?*® 

The secondary transfer of meaning from the instrument 
to the soldier is very easy and natural, in fact inevitable. 
Varicose**® ‘astraddle’ shows that the change in significa- 


“4 Varro Ling. v, 100. Saalfeld in Tensaurus Italograecus derives the 
second meaning from the first: ‘Tigris, der von seinem pfeilschnellen (cf. 
celeris . . . sagittas, Verg. Aen. i, 187) Laufe benannte Tigerfluss.’ 

“ὦ Plin. Nat. vi, 27, 31, (127). 

26 Plut. Mar. 13. 

* Paul. Fest. p. 148 Mill. 

“8 Ib. p. 24. 

* It seems best to connect varicose with varicus ‘straddling,’ rather than 
with varicosus ‘ varicose.’ 


55 


tion is due to the burden rather than the supporting object. 
The figurative use arises then from the general resemblance 
between the pendent baggage and a rider astride his animal. 


If one may judge from the animal names (or derivatives 
from them) included under Machinae Bellicae in Du 
Cange,”*° a siege during the Middle Ages might have sug- 
gested a zoological garden. The list is as follows: 


Aries?>? Musclus 
Asellus Onager 
Berbices Panthera 
Cancer Scropha 
Catus Spingarda”>? 
Colobrina Spingardella 
Ericius Sus 
Falconeta Talpa 

Gatta Talparii 
Hirundo Turturela 
Locusta Vulpes 
Lupus Vulpecula?*? 
Moschetta 


* Du Cange, Tom. vii, p. 515. 

*1 Not listed, but referred to under Jupus and vulpes respectively. 

*2Vocis etymon a Germ. Sfrintz, quod muscetam, genus accipitrum, 
significat, deducit Ferrarius. Du Cange s. v. spingarda. 


INDEX 

PABIAG ich a εγὼ γον μετ ΜΉ Reals Rang RE RRR RB eae pean eh Gre 5° 54 
νυ γον ΜῊ bila sb aR Re ae ἀν ΚΕ ΤᾺ λυ ΔΑ SMM) SGN cw wie ain, wale Seni 44 
CUMCOT last cheeses beds ΕΑ ΤΥ ess bie μέν να ρων 43 
MMOS ον cle ΑΝ Wea a pmrajacet Ove ele Bb ΜΒΟΌ ΝΘ, hci uk py a oe en eee a τῆς 26 
Canal ORCL Woe eo kamieninees PO WRN ον εν ΜΝ ἐν ahve lien 39 
Cee aL eS, UR  ΟΥΟΟΜΥΝ ΣΥΝ ἀρ Wiel ἐν ἐν wots 35 
RE νῶν πριν bes RR AT Bs FEMME TERR: τ Gaia A tis ba oialeias bb: bin Oe 47 
ΕῊΙ ΤΗΝ SC dL oia's Wal ula ginal ον COUN CRODRMT LU ee leh Ei Secale a 8 
fag εν αν νἀ MONS LOE, PR ME US SO) ORE SAUL ay 2 ila Gy pice 3 cate oe 35 
CVE HG νυ u's law κοι ον ἀν να δῷ GR ΤΠ Ni dae πον ee eas eset 24 
Οὐ θ. oy as cicada κων cern ῬΑ ΔΙΑ Seu ae ices ween wens 53 
ROME hk ΤΥ so ΤΟ hoon POs PROMS ae > aaa ME A es ik NU re 53 
es CU ARTE a Pepa Apts an een Ge OF ΕΘ ἂν ἐσ ΣΝ ee a Mia aly aie 29 
EC UNSTRID) | 655 ka hig Win bia bla Wig ark ide ἄν ROSEN jigs scuba giana νυν 6 19 
ΟΕ ek vances ne ee hee κα Dawa 33. Testudo Arietaria ..........+. 24 
ΤΟΥ aie ae sie se ha anee ims Peo RUN ΚΡ ΕΝ eS 54 
ΗΒ. Ay aac Sti δ Ὁ helene ies on SE 


*8 Not captions. 


56 


ae 


hae 
ee 
nae 


ΡΞ 
ge 


: oh ἡ 


oe 
of 


oS 


i 
ite 


pik 


RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROV 


This bok ἐν due on the ast date tamped below, orom the | 
date to which renewed. _ 


᾿ 
Ὗ 
’ 
ν᾽ 
~ 
4 
| « 
ὶ 
τ 
χ 
δ “ | | | 
| ν᾽ 
i 
iB, 
ἊΣ | 
Z | 
2 


